So, to recap: the Australian State of Queensland recently had a change of government from the marginally left-wing Labor Party, led by Anna Bligh, to the right-wing Liberal National Party, led by Campbell Newman. (Note that in Australia, “liberal” refers to economic liberalism rather than social liberalism, which is why the parties sound backwards to American ears.) The Newman government has a crazy majority right now; the Labor Party currently doesn’t even hold enough seats to form a minority government. And the Liberal National party seem to have taken this as a mandate to tread on the rights of those who it deems undeserving of them, including Queensland’s LGBTQI citizens.
The Queensland legislature has voted to strip down civil unions to something akin to registering your pets; couples can no longer even have a “state-sanctioned declaration ceremony.” Planned legislation would make it so only people who are in a heterosexual partnership of more than two years could use altruistic surrogacy to have children. Both are unconscionable attacks on queer families, but another action of the Queensland government has more immediate results. Queensland’s government health organisation, led by health minister Lawrence Springborg, has removed funding for the Queensland Association for Healthy Communities(QAHC), which supports LGBTQI health throughout the State.
lawrence springborg
QAHC started its life in 1984 as the Queensland AIDS Council. As poor health outcomes throughout the LGBTQI community were recognized, the organization changed its name and widened its scope (like many of the former AIDS Councils around Australia). Today QAHC provides HIV/AIDS prevention and services, drug and alcohol abuse counseling, support for LGBTQI Indigenous Australians, and a visiting group for LGBTQI seniors. Many of these programs are subsidized by grants, including two from Queensland Health, one for HIV/AIDS prevention and the other for drug and alcohol abuse prevention.
On May 20, Springborg announced that effective at the end of June, Queensland Health would be withdrawing its funding for QAHC. Reasons cited for this funding cut include supposedly rising rates of HIV infection in Queensland (more on that later) and QAHC’s political advocacy for LGBTQI Queenslanders. Interestingly, QAHC is losing its funding for drug and alcohol abuse prevention as well as its funding for HIV/AIDS prevention, but the government has only made statements about the HIV/AIDS funding. (A Queensland Health spokesperson confirmed that QAHC’s drug and alcohol abuse prevention funding expires on 30 June.) The money in question makes up 75% of QAHC’s funding.
The government might have a point about HIV/AIDS services. HIV and AIDS are no longer a “gay disease.” In Queensland, the highest rate of new HIV infections is among heterosexuals, a population which QAHC did not serve. Perhaps it is time for a re-evaluation of where funding for HIV and AIDS services best support patients.
This, however, was not a re-evaluation. It was more of a proclamation. QAHC was never consulted or told that their services were inadequate. They discovered they were being defunded through the newspaper instead of any direct communication with Queensland Health. Queensland Health has said that they will form a ministerial committee (the members of which were announced recently) to determine the best use of this funding. But to remove funding from an organization providing vital services without examining the impact of that action is foolish at best, especially when this is the only non-government organization that has lost its funding. QAHC themselves have even said they welcome the dialogue – but in order for dialogue to happen, the other party must be allowed to speak.
Another reason that has been given for QAHC’s defunding is their political advocacy for LGBTQI people, particularly around same-sex marriage. Springborg has said many times (including in his official statement) that the organization is too political. QAHC believes they are just advocating for their community, which, as we well know, has poor health outcomes due in part to the way they are treated by mainstream society. Asking an organization committed to a community’s health to ignore the reasons that their community is experiencing poor health incomes seems, at best, counterintuitive. As QAHC Executive Director Paul Martin said in this interview:
“The overwhelming focus of our work is providing frontline services to LGBT people and working in partnership with mainstream services to increase their capacity to respond to the needs of LGBT people. Following the World Health Organisation’s ‘Ottawa Charter for Health Promotion’ we do promote healthy public policy. This means raising policy or legal issues that help or hinder the health of LGBT people. This has included supporting civil partnerships. Advocacy on healthy public policy is specifically written in to our contract with Queensland Health, but is only a very small amount of the work that we do.”
a qahc safer sex campaign
In the context of the recent actions of the Queensland government, it’s hard not to see this as an attack on LGBTQI Queenslanders. The way that Queensland Health has conducted its business is not helping their case in any way.
Regardless of whether or not QAHC continues to receive funding for its HIV/AIDS services, its drug and alcohol abuse prevention services are vital. As we have discussed many times on this site, queer people are much more likely to abuse alcohol and other drugs due to disenfranchisement within the larger community and cultural expectations. It’s not necessarily reasonable to expect a mainstream drug and alcohol abuse prevention program to be effective in LGBTQI spaces because of the additional challenges that we face. QAHC is trying to fill that gap, and they cannot do that without money.
What can we do? For you local Autostraddlers, you can write your member of parliament. Even if QAHC’s funding cannot be returned immediately, we can at least help prevent further erosion of LGBTQI rights in Queensland. For those of us interstate or overseas, consider making a donation to QAHC to help them continue their work. You can also find a list of more things to do here.
My first reaction to this: YAY DINA FINISHED HER ARTICLE!!
Second: @___________________@ Why. Why is this allowed.
Great article Dina, i’m so glad you wrote about this. I can’t get over how much damage the Newman gov’t has done in such a short period of time.
It is seriously concerning that this all happened so quickly and with no consultation. I know Queensland has a particular brand of conservatism going on, but I’m genuinely worried about whats going to go down after the next Federal election.
The only (very minor) consolation is that unlike Queensland, the Federal government at least has an Upper House… provided that people don’t screw that up with some misguided backlash against the Greens, in which case we’ll be back in the Howard era.
Also, with a couple of years worth of Liberal government in most states before the next Federal election, perhaps some people will realise that a) Liberals break promises too, and b) they can’t/won’t fix everything.
I never realised that QLD didn’t have a senate. I feel like this explains a lot.
Oh oh! I learnt this in high school. You remember how the Whitlam government had a double-dissolution because the Senate stalled the budget? Apparently that happened all the time in QLD, so they abolished the Senate.
Reading this comment back two years later makes you look like some sort of prophet… :/
It does indeed suck to be a Queenslander right now. That’s pretty much what this new government is all about – making drastic, discriminatory changes without consultation. And if the Liberals win the next federal election…
I always find it amazing how new governments can come into power and take so many steps backwards. It’s like a waltz, but instead of romantic eye-gazing it ends with minorities getting screwed over by Conservative fuckwits.
“I always find it amazing how new governments can come into power and take so many steps backwards. It’s like a waltz, but instead of romantic eye-gazing it ends with minorities getting screwed over by Conservative fuckwits.” yeah, you just described what’s happening in Canada. :-((((
I am upset about this, and the funding cuts to Family Planning too.
They cut the funding from a program that helped educate disabled people and their carers about sexuality (disabled people, the elderly in nursing homes etc have traditionally been denied access to a sex life which i think is very wrong if they are able and willing!), cuts from programs addressing the health needs of rural women, and women in prisons.
All very important work, that rarely gets funded let alone even addressed. I’ve also found them to be knowledgeable and non-judgemental about my needs as a queer sexually active woman which i can’t say of the medical community at large (even saying pap smear to a Dr causes them to freak out, let alone I sleep with both male bodied and female bodied people).
Thanks for this article, hopefully some activism and change will come of it!
Yeah, Newman has gone into his term with the idea that, in order to fix the economic problems in QLD his government needs to cut as much as it possibly can in order to save money, no matter what it is.
Thing is, they still want to spend this money on HIV/AIDS services… just not with QAHC.
You made a good point about targetting services. HIV/AIDS is no longer “the gay disease”, so education and services need to take that into account. Having said that, de-funding not for profit organisations without consultation is a dick move. Would QAHC have still been able to provide HIV/AIDS services on a reduced budget, with more of the funds going toward an organisation with a less minority-specific target? Who knows! I defintely don’t have enough information to make any kind of brilliantly-reasoned argument, but I do enjoy wading into the discussion. I might actually learn something :)
THANK YOU. I was wondering when international media would pick up on this.
QAHC saved my life a few times over.
Yeah, watching this state government kinda blow up against everything that’s not white, religious, corporate, hetro and male has been one that hasn’t warrented a deck chair and popcorn for sure.
Campbell’s list of things he hates and has subsequently cut programs for includes the environment, Justice, the LGBTI community, the arts, literacy, education, health, disabled people, women, disadvantaged, uteruses, people with diabetes, people struggling with addictions, and the sun.
And the worst thing is, he isn’t even done yet.
If it makes you feel any better Metz Ronan, the hetero, white, male types are getting screwed as well with 35,000 public service jobs getting cut, health system funding getting screwed etc.
The only positive I can think is that if the government is screwing everybody over, voters are more likely to make a big fuss than if it is just all the already marginalised groups…. Right???