Qld Aids Council protests funding cuts

Lynda Hansen, Brisbane

On July 15, 150 members and supporters of the Queensland AIDS Council (QuAC) rallied outside Parliament House to protest massive government funding cuts to the organisation, announced a week earlier.

After 20 years of a successful partnership between the Queensland AIDS Council (QuAC) and the Queensland government's health department, on July 8 the department signalled that the core program providing funding care and support services for people living with HIV/AIDS will be taken from QuAC and given to the church-based St Luke's nursing service.

Criticising the decision, QuAC president Roddy Goodbun said: "Over the last 15 years, QuAC has built a range of services valued at over $850,000 per annum that complements what the Queensland government supports with core program funding. QuAC currently employs approximately 45 staff around five sites around Queensland."

Some of these jobs could be under threat in regional areas as the government's HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C and Sexual Health Strategy lapsed two years ago.

QuAC says that it will have to close four regional offices after its funding was cut by almost $500,000. It argues that shifting significant funds from its organisation to St Luke's nursing services will undermine access to the AIDS services for some of the most affected groups, primarily gay men.

QuAC states its July 6 briefing paper Health Tenders for HIV/AIDS, Hepatitis C & Sexual Health that while domiciliary nursing services like St Luke's have demonstrated their capacity to provide professional services, they cannot replicate the work that QuAC does among gays to build and maintain a volunteer base and to provide an important community development role.

QuAC believes that treatment and care for people living with HIV/AIDS should be delivered from a "wellness model" involving care coordination, social and emotional support, emergency relief, transport assistance, natural therapies and practical home help.

"I believe that QuAC have an experienced and informed position from which they can effectively educate on HIV/AIDS and provide services for people living with HIV/AIDS", John Frame, the producer of 4ZZZ's's Queer Radio program, told Green Left Weekly. "The service provider should be the one most suitable, not the most cost effective".

[Lynda Hansen is the Socialist Alliance candidate for the federal seat of Griffith.]

From Green Left Weekly, July 21, 2004.

Visit the Green Left Weekly home page.

From GLW issue 590