The Hon. ELAINE NILE: My question without notice is directed to the Minister for Health and Community Services. Is it a fact that nine-year-old Eve Van Grafhorst, who contracted HIV-AIDS from the New South Wales Red Cross blood transfusion
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service when she lived near Gosford, is now in the last stages of the AIDS disease? She now resides in Hastings, New Zealand. Will the Government contact Eve's mother and make a generous, emergency, ex-gratia payment for little Eve and her parents so that she can have some peace and security in the last months of her life, if possible with her family and friends in New South Wales?

The Hon. J. P. HANNAFORD: The Hon. Elaine Nile will recall that I made an announcement of the Government's position in relation to medically acquired AIDS. The honourable member will recall that, when I made that announcement, I said that people who acquired AIDS whilst living in New South Wales were entitled to apply for assistance. I recollect that Eve came into that category. In defining the eligibility categories I recognised that there were people who had left New South Wales - some to live in other countries or in other States - in order to obtain a better lifestyle or to be closer to medical assistance. Because of the expansion of that category, Eve and her family would be entitled to make an application for assistance. There should be no reason why she should not be contacted and notified of that. I will take that matter into consideration and draw it to the attention of my department.