About Us

Not everyone will bewail Health Minister Abbott's decision to include some fresh faces on the government's top panel on sexually transmitted diseases ("Abbott sparks AIDS ire" -The Age 3/3/04). But, let's face it: the infection figures have risen from a national whisper to a shout!

It made good sense 20 years ago to establish a partnership with the gay community to fight HIV/AIDS, especially as the disease then (as it still does) was overwhelmingly infecting homosexual males more than anone else, and few would gainsay the value of that.

But now HIV awareness campaigns need re-vitalising and the continuing upward spiral in the infection rate has to be realistically confronted. The ballooning bureaucracies of the Sydney and Melbourne AIDS Councils have hardly justified the millions of dollars poured into them. Perhaps that explains the spleen that's so quickly greeted the new appointments, dismissing them as a " a strange mix."

That said, and speaking on behalf of a Catholic AIDS agency, I hope that Father Kelly's inclusion will make for a significant Catholic contribution that'll help sweep away some of the dark fears and cobwebs in the church.

Certainly we weren't impressed when a Catholic journal, run by Fr Kelly's Order (the Jesuits) recently accepted our advertisement calling on the nation's bishops to take up a special Easter collection to help people living with GHIV/AIDS, and then abruptly cancelled it without explanation. That's the sort of heavy-handedness that's a real turn-off!

Practical responses in the field also need to be much more than part- time services conducted from a virtually secret address and with an unpublicised phone number, as is the case with the Melbourne archdiocese.

Thank you,

Brian Haill
President,
The Australian AIDS Fund Inc
PO Box 1347
Frankston, Victoria, 3199, Australia

Jesuit defends Catholic voice on AIDS subcommittee
Catholic News (a service of Church Resources) http://www.cathnews.com.au - 5/3/04

Fr Michael Kelly SJ has told a Sydney gay community newspaper that Catholics have a right to representation on Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott's HIV/AIDS subcommittee.

The subcommittee reports to the new Ministerial Advisory Committee on AIDS, Sexual Health and Hepatitis (MACASHH), a body formed to help create the Federal Government's strategy to fight sexually transmitted diseases.

"I am only one voice. I will be a responsible voice. I am an intelligent person and I will make an informed decision... I think the Catholic community has a right to its representative there and they are only one voice among many"said Fr Kelly, who is CEO of Church Resources.

He was defending his appointment in the face of criticism from members of the gay community community fearing the appointment would provide the Church with an opportunity to bring its perceived intolerance of homosexual lifestyles to bear in government legislation.

Fr Michael Kelly, who was speaking with the Sydney Star Observer, said he would be makingdecisions on the basis of "common sense, the facts, the available money and the opportunities for proper and responsible public health behaviours."

When asked specifically about condom use he said he was of the view that it is "the lesser of two evils that should be the moral position" in public health issues.

Catholic gay activist Michael Kelly (no relation) suggested to the Star that no matter how progressive Fr Kelly's own positions may be, he would be forced to play church politics.

Meanwhile, Brian Haill of the Melbourne Catholic AIDS agency, The Australian AIDS Fund Incorporated, welcomed the appointment, saying he hopes Fr Kelly's inclusion will make for "a significant Catholic contribution that'll help sweep away some of the dark fears and cobwebs in the church."

Source
1 HIV committee shock (Sydney Star Observer 4/3/04)

Committee Shock - By Marcus O'Donnell

Federal health minister Tony Abbott’s failure to appoint any community representatives to the new Ministerial Advisory Committee on AIDS, Sexual Health and Hepatitis (MACASHH) has shocked HIV organisations.

Although the minister’s office is not expected to make an official announcement until today, AFAO president Darren Russell told the Star it was his understanding no one from the community HIV sector had been appointed to the central committee.

“There certainly seem to be strange appointments but even more worrying is who’s been left out,” Russell said. “We could cope with one or two quirky appointments if there was good community representation overall but on the main MACASHH committee there is no community representation whatsoever and that’s the first time in the 20-year history of HIV in this country that has happened. It’s a real move away from the partnership model that has been so successful in this country.”

Abbott, a Catholic and a member of the monarchist movement, has, according to The Age, appointed Nick Hobson, a member of Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy and a former RAAF officer, to the central committee and Jesuit priest Fr Michael Kelly to the HIV sub-committee.

David Menadue, vice-president of the National Association of People Living with HIV/AIDS, has agreed to sit on the HIV subcommittee, but long-time PLWHA activist Bill Whittaker has refused a similar appointment in protest. AFAO executive officer Don Baxter has agreed to sit on the sub-committee.

Whittaker said that he believed that the new structure of MACASHH was “fundamentally flawed” and as a matter of principle he could not participate.

“I just think Tony Abbott is thinking, ‘I want people who share my values and who give me advice I want to hear,’” Menadue told The Age.

A spokesperson for the minister told The Age that being gay was not a selection criterion for membership of any of the committees, a comment ACON president Adrian Lovney branded as outrageous.

“We think that being gay should be part of the selection criteria. It remains that 85 percent of people with HIV in this country are gay and a somewhat flippant statement that having gay people at the table is unimportant is outrageous. It’s also a fundamental departure from the HIV policy that has got us to this point,” Lovney told the Star.

“We are very disappointed that MACASHH appears to be stumbling before it even made it out of the starter’s gate,” he said.

Fr Michael Kelly told the Star that he would be making decisions on the basis of “common sense, the facts, the available money and the opportunities for proper and responsible public health behaviours”.

When asked specifically about condom use he said he was of the view that it is “the lesser of two evils that should be the moral position” in public health issues.

“I am only one voice. I will be a responsible voice. I am an intelligent person and I will make an informed decision … I think the Catholic community has a right to its representative there and they are only one voice among many,” he said.

Catholic gay activist Michael Kelly (no relation) disagrees. He told the Star that no matter how progressive Fr Kelly’s own positions may be, he would be forced to play church politics.

“He’ll be forced to have one eye on public health issues, the other eye on Vatican politics and a third eye, if he had one, on the right-wing Catholic extremists who will be reporting every move he makes to George Pell.

This is not the sort of person we need advising the minister on HIV AIDS,” Kelly said.