LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL Thursday, 17Th October, 1991
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LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL Thursday, 17th October, 1991 ______ The President took the chair at 10.30 a.m The President offered the Prayers. PETITION Stray Dogs Petition praying that the Premier fulfil his promise to ban the sending of stray dogs to laboratories in New South Wales, received from the Hon. R. S. L. Jones. BUSINESS OF THE HOUSE Precedence of Business Motion by the Hon. E. P. Pickering agreed to: That so much of the Standing and Sessional Orders be suspended as would preclude Government Business taking precedence of General Business after 5.15 p.m. on Thursday 17 October 1991. The Hon. E. P. PICKERING (Minister for Police and Emergency Services and Vice- President of the Executive Council) [10.36]: I seek the leave of the House to move a motion to suspend so much of the Standing and Sessional Orders as would preclude an amendment of the order of the House made yesterday regarding precedence of business for the "take note" debate on the Report of the Standing Committee on Social Issues on Medically Acquired HIV and the Order of the Day on the Procurement of Miscarriage Limitation Bill. Leave granted. Motion by the Hon. E. P. Pickering agreed to: That so much of the Standing and Sessional Orders be suspended as would preclude the consideration forthwith of the following motion: That the Order of the House made on Wednesday 16th October 1991 regarding precedence of Business on Thursday 17th October 1991 be amended by substituting paragraphs (1) and (2) as follows: Page 2337 (1) the resumption of the "take note" debate on the Report of the Standing Committee on Social Issues on Medically Acquired HIV taking precedence until 3.30 p.m. (except for Questions), unless earlier concluded; and (2) the Order of the Day on the Procurement of Miscarriage Limitation Bill next taking precedence until 5.15 p.m., unless earlier concluded. Motion, by leave, by the Hon. E. P. Pickering agreed to: That the Order of the House made on Wednesday 16th October 1991 for precedence of Business on Thursday 17th October 1991 be amended by substituting paragraphs (1) and (2) as follows: (1) the resumption of the "take note" debate on the Report of the Standing Committee on Social Issues on Medically Acquired HIV taking precedence until 3.30 p.m. (except for Questions), unless earlier concluded; and (2) the Order of the Day or the Procurement of Miscarriage Limitation Bill next taking precedence until 5.15 p.m., unless earlier concluded. STANDING COMMITTEE ON SOCIAL ISSUES Report The Hon. Dr MARLENE GOLDSMITH [10.39]: The report on medically acquired human immunodeficiency virus is the culmination of an inquiry that began with the referral to the committee in October last year of a motion from this House. [Interruption] The PRESIDENT: Order! There is far too much background conversation. When the House is being addressed by a member who does not have a stentorian voice it is extraordinarily difficult for me to hear. The Hon. Dr MARLENE GOLDSMITH: In the revised terms of reference, dating from when the inquiry was re-established after the election in May this year, a reference to financial assistance replaced an earlier reference to compensation. The committee had come to the conclusion that the concept of compensation, with its implication of legal negligence, was a very complex one. A number of court cases have resulted in very different decisions. In New South Wales the cases so far have been resolved against the plaintiffs, though in Victoria there has been one victory and one out-of-court settlement in favour of plaintiffs. With all the resources of the legal system, the situation remains unresolved. In these circumstances the committee took the view that replacement of the term "compensation" by the less judgmental "financial assistance" would allow a greater opportunity to consider providing assistance to the medically acquired AIDS community. Had this change not been made, I am convinced that a majority of the Page 2338 committee would not have supported any special assistance at all to people with medically acquired AIDS and their families. In brief, the committee makes 28 separate recommendations in its report, 20 of which refer to the area of services, and these recommendations were supported unanimously by the committee, though Reverend the Hon. F. J. Nile would have preferred to see all of these recommendations restricted to people with medically acquired HIV. However, the symptoms of AIDS are the same, regardless of the mode of transmission of the virus. A person with transfusion AIDS may need three changes of bed linen in a night; so might the person who acquired AIDS from drug use or sexual activity. HIV does not discriminate. When gaps in services were identified by the committee it was felt that many such services were needed by the whole HIV community, and for the committee to say that one sick person was more deserving of treatment than another would be a denial of the humane ethos that infuses our community, for we are a humane society. This inquiry may have identified some service gaps, but by and large we, as a State, have much to be proud of in taking care of people with AIDS. The report lists a wide range of services provided for the HIV community - a range that shows not only our commitment to helping in this area but also our capacity to meet needs at comparatively short notice, given that AIDS is an illness that has been known in this country for less than 10 years. Indeed, it is undoubtedly because of its newness that some service needs remain to be met. The committee was given profoundly moving testimony by two witnesses who had cared for one young man with AIDS-related dementia. Neither our hospitals nor our mental institutions were equipped to deal with such a case, and as a result the suffering of the victim and his family was intensified. As a result of this and similar testimony, the committee recommended that a special unit be established for people with AIDS-related neurological problems. The committee was given information that some 20 per cent of AIDS patients will develop such problems. As more people with HIV move into the later stages of AIDS, the need for this service can only increase. The service is clearly required for all of the affected 20 per cent, regardless of mode of transmission. Indeed, the HIV community as a whole has reason to be grateful to the people with medically-acquired HIV. Because they were all infected more than six years ago, this group and their carers have been able to provide information to the committee about the needs of people with AIDS; needs that may in future be better met for the HIV community as a whole. The early victims of AIDS have suffered greatly because of ignorance, prejudice and lack of services, and all of the medically-acquired HIV community were infected early. Their suffering has been particularly traumatic. Other service needs that the inquiry revealed included pharmaceuticals, home care, home nursing, transport and access to nursing homes. These needs and others are addressed in the committee's recommendations. Eight of the recommendations of the report addressed the issue of financial assistance. Of these, six were supported by a majority of the committee, and two unanimously. In brief, Page 2339 the report recommends providing financial assistance in annual instalments to people in the later stages of AIDS. For people with dependants the annual payment is $8,000 in stage 3 and $12,000 in stage 4, up to a maximum of $50,000. For people without dependants the payments are halved. In no way is this financial assistance to be considered as compensation. Any such sum clearly would be far larger, as evidenced by the sorts of payments attainable in court cases in which negligence is proven. The weight of the evidence before the committee was that, by and large, court cases in New South Wales would not succeed in establishing negligence and that, in consequence, there would be no legally provided compensation. However, there is the broader issue of the community's moral as opposed to legal responsibility. When an individual contracts the human immunodeficiency virus from a public institution, even though there may have been no negligence involved, the question must be asked whether public authorities have a moral obligation to that individual. A majority of the committee took the view that in a humane society there was such an obligation. AIDS is such a cruel and costly illness - in terms of physical suffering, financial expense, social stigma and family stress - that we believed it to be unique, and therefore particularly deserving of unique treatment above and beyond any other medically-acquired illnesses. In brief, the majority of the committee found a total of nine factors which, when taken together, separated medically-acquired HIV from both non-medically-acquired HIV and other medically-acquired illnesses. These factors are: the fact that the source of the infection was a government instrumentality; the extreme and long-term physical trauma that is the nature of HIV; the substantial costs involved in caring for someone with HIV; the urgency of the needs of the medically-acquired HIV community in that they have all been infected for a substantial period and are in the latter stages of the illness; the double trauma for those who have haemophilia; the stigma that members of the medically-acquired HIV community suffers as a result of incorrect assumptions about their sexual orientation or drug use; the fact that many have dependent children and or spouses; the adequate precedents for the granting of such financial assistance; and the difficulties for people with medically-acquired HIV in pursuing litigation.