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- 8 March 2006
Infectious Diseases
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The Hon. DAVID OLDFIELD [5.09 p.m.]: Today it has become apparent to the population at large that the embattled New South Wales health system has had imported infectious diseases added to its list of woes. This is not news as such. What is news is that these matters are now openly disclosed in newspapers, discussed on radio and seen on television. Most will think it began with today's report in the Daily Telegraph entitled, "Exotic disease outbreak warning", closely followed by the excellent work of 2GB, particularly announcers Alan Jones and Ray Hadley. Concerned Australians such as Dr Rodney Spencer have been trying to alert the public to infectious diseases imported by inappropriate immigration for some 20 years. Even I have been consistently outspoken on the problem for nearly 10 years—indeed, I suggest that since the late 1990s no-one has been more on the front foot on this issue than I. It is cold comfort now to have these issues making it into the mainstream media, especially when we consider how much infectious disease has already been imported. Today's disclosures are the result of a recent surge of African refugees who, as the New South Wales Minister for Health stated:
… are arriving with a range of complex health problems rarely seen in Australia.
According to the Daily Telegraph:
… since May 2005, the Refugee Clinic at the Children's Hospital Westmead saw 93 patients from Africa, with 34 per cent referred to specialists.
The Minister for Health, the Hon. John Hatzistergos, is quoted as saying that "this may only be the tip of the iceberg". Unhappily, I confirm that he is absolutely right: it is just the tip of the disease iceberg and Australia is the Titanic. Even the Australian Medical Journal as far back as 1992 contained surveys of inner-city Sydney schoolchildren showing that 27 per cent of those born overseas carried tuberculosis.
Perhaps the matter that should anger Australians most is that, whilst the current crop of commonly infected Africans has highlighted this matter for the public at large, this issue has been building for decades through inappropriate immigration. Even today only a small percentage of those coming into Australia are properly screened for infectious diseases. Worse, the web site of the Department of Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs discloses that those who are under 15 do not get tested for HIV-AIDS and those who are under 11 do not get tested for tuberculosis. Is anyone seriously suggesting that AIDS does not strike until a person is 15 and that tuberculosis does not strike until the age of 11? These deadly infectious diseases are common amongst young Africans. Worse still, a test disclosing that a person has HIV-AIDS still does not preclude entry into Australia.
No level of sympathy for the predicament these people face justifies the dangers that they pose to Australians. It is all very well to feel sorry and to want to help them, but that help should not include endangering countless Australians by knowingly importing deadly incurable diseases. Government policy pays more attention to protecting Australian animals and plants than the Australian people. Consider the Government's efforts to stop the introduction of animals infected with diseases such as rabies, yet the basis of a human epidemic has been hitting our shores unchecked for years. On the issue of infected Africans, more than 20,000 have been brought to Australia in the past three years and the immigration department web site shows that its emphasis remains on Africa. Is it nuts?
HIV-AIDS, tuberculosis, hepatitis and other infectious diseases with strains previously unknown in Australia are easing their way into our everyday lives and assaulting our already strained health system. Are infected refugees jumping the queues at our hospitals in the same way as they jumped the queues at our borders? By failing to bar the contagious from Australia our immigration policies are discriminating against our people. Those who built Australia are being endangered by those who have nothing to offer Australia except disease and infection. If people are not worried for themselves they might like to consider who their children or grandchildren are at school with or who might bite them, spit on them, breathe on them or, for that matter, simply share a drink with them. There is no sustainable excuse for allowing infected persons, refugees or otherwise, to enter Australia. Regardless of the steps that need to be taken to address the current infection, the first actions are clear: Shut the gate, close the door and do not let them in.
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