NSW’s leading HIV organisation, ACON, has condemned moves by NSW Labor to introduce a Bill to enforce mandatory testing of individuals whose bodily fluids come into contact with emergency services personnel, such as police officers.
Announced today by NSW Opposition Leader Jodi McKay, NSW Labor intends to give notice of a Bill that introduces mandatory testing in NSW.
ACON has strongly opposed moves to introduce mandatory disease testing of people as it is ineffective in reducing harm or risk to people involved in potential exposure incidents.
In the lead up to the NSW state election in March 2019, ACON canvassed major parties on whether they opposed mandatory testing and NSW Labor affirmed their opposition, adding “we have no plans to change the current law”.
ACON CEO Nicolas Parkhill said the plan was not based on scientific evidence.
“Mandatory testing is a confused and poorly regulated policy in some other jurisdictions, is not based on any evidence of occupational transmission of disease, is rejected by the NSW Australian Medical Association as ineffective, and it represents a broken election promise.
“This move undermines a clear process the NSW Government has undertaken to receive and assess submissions on this issue following the distribution of the Department of Justice Options Paper in 2018. This Options Paper was circulated in response to a 2017 NSW Parliamentary Committee Inquiry into violence against emergency services personnel. The NSW Government has yet to respond to this Options Paper.”
ACON has been in an ongoing contact with relevant NSW Government Departments and some members of the NSW Parliament regarding the issue of mandatory testing – most recently when, in partnership with the Australasian Society for HIV Medicine, the Australian Federation of AIDS Organisations and six other leading HIV and blood-borne virus (BBV) organisations, we put forward a policy position paper in October 2018.
“We strongly believe in the importance of the wellbeing and safety of emergency service personnel. We agree they must be protected as much as is reasonably possible in a high-level occupational risk environment,” Parkhill said.
“However, there are other ways to manage anxiety and risks for BBVs, rather than resorting to legislation that gives police the power to mandatorily test alleged offenders – which is an approach that goes against expert advice, lacks an evidence base and relies on 30-year old notions of HIV and other BBVs.
“Punitive laws based on outdated misconceptions and myths about how HIV and other BBVs are transmitted, and which perpetuate stigma and discrimination, do not need to be introduced during a time when HIV notifications are at historic lows in NSW, when HIV is a treatable and manageable condition, and when inroads are being made into ending HIV stigma.
“NSW Labor’s proposal has no basis in medical evidence. Further, BBVs have a varied and at times extended window period for the detection of a transmission and as such, testing the source of exposure is not an effective method for gaining ‘peace of mind’ of one’s own test results.”
Advances in prevention and treatment of HIV mean that police have access to treatments that effectively prevent the transmission of the virus, and these treatments are prescribed by doctors who are trained in identifying potential risk.
Furthermore, these planned laws will run the risk of violating best-practice testing guidelines. The recent report compiled by the National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS released in September 2019, The System Is Broken, highlights the complexity of introducing mandatory testing laws and the discrepancies between these laws in Australian jurisdictions.
The report highlights that advances in prevention and treatment of HIV mean that transmission of the virus is extremely unlikely, noting that there have been no occupational transmissions in Australia for 17 years.
The report also mentions that the implementation of such laws does not reduce the risk of transmission or affect the treatment pathway for individuals who may be exposed to HIV, and that in some cases, decisions relating to transmission risk are made by non-experts.
When similar laws were introduced in Western Australia politicians said they would rarely be used, but information obtained via freedom of information requests had shown that people were being forced to give blood samples under the legislation around 100 times per year.
Since WA’s laws were changed in 2015 387 applications have been made and 377 of those applications have been approved.
Health experts have described the system as being incredibly ineffective, and are not working in conjunction with other health policies. Concern has also been raised that the policy increases stigma around living with HIV.
Edwin Bernard, the global head of HIV Justice Network, spoke to OUTinPerth on a recent visit to Australia and said that politicians needed to change their focus.
‘We have the tools to end the epidemic, the science is there. The barrier is stigma, discrimination and criminalisation.” Bernard said.
“It’s really about political will, we want political leaders to actually first of all understand the science and not ignore it, and understand that in order to really reach these targets and get to the end of AIDS you’ve got to remove the laws, and you’ve got to also work on the stigma and discrimination.
“Don’t waste money on mandatory testing and keeping people in prison, on pushing people down. You need to invest in communities and invest in access to treatment, in access to testing and access to PrEP.” Bernard said.
ACON argue that NSW Labor’s move also goes against a policy position of the NSW Australian Medical Association which states that there is never a case for universal testing.
“Universal compulsory testing…cannot be justified on epidemiological or other public health grounds”.
Nicholas Parkhill says except for extreme cases getting tested for HIV should always be voluntary.
“Mandatory testing would violate state and national guidelines that indicate testing should be voluntary except in exceptional circumstances. Given that saliva is not considered a risk for BBV, this act would not cross the threshold for mandatory testing under current policy settings in Australia.
“Mandatory disease testing of individuals infringes on the human rights of individuals, and increases community stigmatisation of people living with HIV, Hepatitis B and C.
“We strongly urge the Opposition Leader and NSW Labor to reconsider the introduction of testing laws as it has the potential to further exacerbate stigma and discrimination not only of people living with HIV, but also marginalised populations including people living with mental illness, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, people who are homeless, people from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, sex workers and people who use drugs – communities that already face disproportionate discrimination on the basis of these attributes,” Parkhill said.
“We would welcome the opportunity to discuss this issue and its related medical and policy context with the NSW Opposition Leader, as she has done with the NSW Police Association and Health Services Union.”
OIP Staff
