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Hepatitis NSW Submission: Mandatory Disease Testing Bill 2020
Hepatitis NSW has provided a submission on the Mandatory Disease Testing Bill 2020 currently being considered by the State Government, and will shortly be attending a committee hearing at NSW Parliament House. Hepatitis NSW has opposed mandatory disease testing since it was first considered following recommendations arising in the 2017 NSW Legislative Assembly Committee on Law and Safety Report. Our position remains unchanged.
Download our submission>>> CLICK HERE
The proposed bill won’t address risk to frontline workers
We strongly believe that the wellbeing and safety of frontline workers in NSW is vitally important. In terms of wellbeing and safety, we are referring not just to the physical but also to mental and emotional wellbeing. Our frontline workers deserve the community’s respect and should not be subject to acts of intimidation, threats or violence in any form. They must be protected as much as is reasonably possible in a high-level occupational risk environment.
In providing that protection, it is essential that the strategies designed and used are scientifically informed, evidence-based and effective in meeting the aim; that they are fit for purpose. Where the issue being addressed is a health issue, the response must be health based, not based on criminalising affected people.
A health informed and based response provides a holistic, wraparound approach that draws on appropriate health promotion, medical support, interventions and care to the primarily affected person. Force and criminalisation against a third party is punitive and does not provide sanctuary for a victim.
This Bill is a blunt instrument that is wholly incapable of achieving anything other than a perpetuation of fear, loathing, discrimination and privileging that is inconsistent with the inclusive, fair and responsible society and behaviour we would all desire. It will not address the stress and concerns of frontline workers around the exceedingly low risk of infection. Indeed, greater results will be achieved through supporting them with accurate information about risks, addressing their concerns, and providing professional wellbeing, support and counselling.
We do not support mandatory testing
Mandatory testing is not in line with the Australian National HIV, Hepatitis B or Hepatitis C Testing Policies, or supported by global health bodies. The key principles guiding blood borne virus (BBV) testing in Australia are that testing is conducted ethically, is voluntary and performed with the informed consent of the person being tested.
Mandatory testing does not meet these principles. Mandatory testing laws are not supported by global health bodies such as UNAIDS and the World Health Organization on the basis that it breaches human rights, compromises public health initiatives and other efforts to eliminate HIV and other BBV transmission.
- Download our submission>>> CLICK HERE
- Read other submissions – NSW Parliament site>>> CLICK HERE
For more information, please contact:
Hepatitis NSW
Steven Drew, CEO
[email protected]
0402 518 285
