NZAF Life Membership awards

I begin by greeting everyone in the languages of the realm of New Zealand, in English, Māori, Cook Island Māori, Niuean, Tokelauan and New Zealand Sign Language. Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni and as it is the afternoon (Sign)

I then specifically greet you: Alistair Cameron, Chair of the New Zealand AIDS Foundation and members of the Trust Board; Rachael Le Mesurier, Executive Director of the Foundation and your staff; Life membership recipients: Dr Graeme Carpenter, Charles Chauvel MP, Shona Fordyce, Michael Stevens, Mama Tere Strickland; members of the Foundation; Distinguished Guests otherwise; Ladies and Gentlemen. 

It is with great pleasure that my wife Susan and I welcome you to Government House in Auckland for the presentation of life memberships to significant members of the New Zealand AIDS Foundation.

Before presenting the awards as Patron, I would like to speak a little of the work of the New Zealand AIDS Foundation in this, its 25th year.

At the outset, I note that this will be the last AGM that Rachael Le Mesurier will attend as Executive Director.  Rachael has played a greatly appreciated role in the organisation for the last seven years and I would like to add thanks to her for her service and wish her well with her future endeavours.

Without doubt, AIDS (acquired immuno-deficiency syndrome) continues to challenge everyone in a way no-one would have predicted when cases were first diagnosed in the early 1980s.  Until the introduction of effective drug therapies in the late 1990s, AIDS proceeded to cut a devastating swathe through the community, taking the lives of many people, often young people, well before their time.

While it is said that AIDS can now be managed, there remains a daily challenge for those who live with it and for their families, friends and the medical personnel who assist them. 

But AIDS has also challenged, more widely, societies and communities.  Politicians, lawyers, courts, government agencies, schools, businesses and community organisations have all been called upon to address attitudes towards the illness, as well as to issues about sexual behaviour, sexual identity, human rights and the connections between them. 

There has been a need to confront prejudice.  This point was well made by Michael Kirby, a recently retired and distinguished Justice of the High Court of Australia, in a speech at Monash University four weeks ago.  As he said:

“Before HIV came along, public health was not naturally viewed as associated with human rights.  In fact, human rights tended to be thrown out the window when a serious epidemic broke out.  From biblical times, the infected were sent outside the city walls.  The strict laws of quarantine were put in place.  Effectively, those who were ill lost most of their human rights.  But when HIV struck, the infected were already on every continent.  There was not enough barbed wire to round them up.  A new strategy was needed.  It also required recognition of a paradox—acceptance that, to alter human behaviour, society would have to protect the human rights of the infected and the vulnerable.”

The twin tasks of addressing that paradox and of finding a new strategy in New Zealand was taken up by a small group of New Zealanders, who established what was then known as the AIDS Support Network Trust in March 1985.  The trust brought together a number of local networks which had sprung up in many parts of the country in the previous year.

It was not until 1983, that the virus which causes AIDS was identified and yet in 1983 and 1984 alone, there were more than 6,500 deaths in the United States.

Viewed from relative distance of the South Pacific, a number of New Zealanders watched with growing concern as this mysterious disease caused devastation elsewhere, but particularly in North America. 

The late Bruce Burnett, who had seen first-hand the devastation the disease had wrought, having worked with one of the first AIDS support groups in San Francisco, was one of a number who returned to New Zealand to raise the alarm.

Many people, some of them are still here, played a pivotal role. 

At the outset, this new organisation adopted a four part mission—to support people living with AIDS; to prevent its transmission; to protect the human rights of those most affected by the condition; and to build science-based knowledge.

Summarised in the NZAF vision of “a world without AIDS” and its mission to prevent the transmission of HIV-AIDS and in supporting those affected by the virus to maximise their health and wellbeing, the Foundation has remained committed to that work ever since.

AIDS is still a part of the New Zealand community.  The vaccines that some people spoke of optimistically in the early days of the epidemic have not eventuated and their implementation are likely to be many years away.

While HIV rates in New Zealand are lower than in many places elsewhere in the world, the number of new infections has increased from a low point reached in late 1990s. 

The AIDS Epidemiology Group at the University of Otago reported earlier this year that 71 people were diagnosed with HIV through antibody testing in New Zealand in the first half of 2010.  Every new infection is a tragedy, for the individuals concerned, as well as family and friends and the community more generally.

While it is not open for us to say AIDS has been defeated, we can mark the many achievements of the Foundation in its 25 years.   Born in a time of crisis, the Foundation has come of age and established itself as a respected and credible public health organisation.

When an organisation’s reason for being is to prevent something from happening, it is difficult to know what would have happened had the Foundation not existed.  Even so, it seems clear that many more New Zealanders would have been infected with AIDS had it not been for the work of the Foundation and all those who have supported its work in the last quarter century.

The Foundation is more than its meetings, documents and new programmes.  It is made up of people, many who have gone the extra mile to support those with HIV-Aids and to work to prevent transmission of the virus.   It is to those people that the Foundation presents its highest honour — of life membership.

In recognising five individuals, who have made outstanding contributions to the Foundation’s work—Dr Graeme Carpenter, Charles Chauvel MP, Shona Fordyce, Michael Stevens, Mama Tere Strickland; and with Wednesday next week being World AIDS Day, it seems timely to encourage everyone to redouble efforts to fight this insidious virus.  At a time when New Zealanders face many challenges, we should not lose sight of the many that remain in need of our support.

And on that note of congratulation and challenge, I will close in New Zealand’s first language, by offering everyone greetings and wishing you all good health and fortitude in your endeavours. No reira, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tēnā koutou katoa.