HIV-AIDS loses out in the Budget

There is also no indication about the role of the Australian-appointed HIV-AIDS Special Representative - an ambassador for the future Australian HIV-AIDS response in the Asia-Pacific region.

The metal of a government’s core value system could be assessed by its response to the weakest of the weak in the society. In my recent analysis of the Rudd Government’s health policy towards Indigenous Australians, (Public health implications of the “National emergency intervention to protect the Indigenous children in the Northern Territory of Australia” (PDF 115KB)) I have noticed that they are like “old wine in new bottle”.

The Indigenous health policy of the Rudd Government (initiated by the previous government and implemented with bi-partisan support) smacks of racism and is driven by the kind of social welfare which views social problems as a product of pathology or dysfunction among the members of society, rather than a product of structural circumstances, which are part of a wider historical and social context.

One may argue that the public health policy responses to the Indigenous Australians are driven by the domestic politics of appeasing the middle Australians, who grew up in the white only Australian era with the staple cultural diet of xenophobia.

I sincerely hope, the lack of acknowledgement to the challenges of HIV and AIDS in Asia-Pacific region in the current budget is not driven by the values the government exhibits in its response to Indigenous Australians.