(Friday 18 December)
On Friday it was announced that funding for the HIV-Counselling Service at the Bouverie Family Therapy Centre in Flemington has been
axed. This is a disappointing decision by the government as the Centre provides an
essential service to positive people.
Please write to the Parliamentary Secretary of Health and to the Minister of Health and
express your deepest concern at this axing of funds.
Their contacts are:
Rob Doyle, Secretary of Health, Ph: 9616 7710, Fax: 9616 8566
e-mail: paige.gale@minstaff.vic.gov.au
Rob Knowles, Minister for Health, Ph: 9616 7777, Fax: 9616 8566
e-mail: sue.fox@minstaff.vic.gov.au
(29 Sep 97)
Bradley Engelmann:
Recipient of the 1997 VAC President's Award.
Bradley Engelmann, a former VAC President and longtime advocate for positive people was
the recipient of the 1997 VAC President's Award. Bradley died in October 1996, but one of
many of his ideas was the need for a website offering positive people access to
appropriate information. Our web site attempts to fulfil that need and is dedicated to
Bradley's life and work.
At the VAC Annual General Meeting on 29 September Bradley Engelmann's partner, Daniel
Coase, a former convenor of the VAC Support Program, accepted the award from Joseph
O'Reilly. The President's Award is the personal prerogative of the President and
recognises outstanding achievement. In accepting the award, Daniel said: "I
can assure you, that if Bradley were still alive, he would be accepting this award, not
for himself, but only on behalf of all those men and women with HIV/AIDS who have fought
so long for a truly autonomous and self-determining voice. To name but a few, he would
have paid tribute to Keith Harbour, Bill Hathaway, Les Taylor and to James Nagle. He would
also have acknowledged the work over many years of David Menadue." With
reference to the proposed independent advocacy organisation, Daniel went on to say that,
were Bradley still here, he would still be giving you all a bloody hard time, advocating
vigorously that the new organisation has every legitimate right to a fair and appropriate
allocation of the HIV resources, to ensure its ongoing viability and success. "He
would also be passionate in articulating the need to retain, as an integral part of its
activities and mission, peer support and peer education."
The citation, as published in the Annual Report stated:
Bradley Engelmann served as President of the Victorian AIDS Council
and Gay Men's Health Centre from September 1994 to September 1995.
Prior to his term as President, Bradley was the openly HIV positive
representative on the board, an active member of the PLWHA Program Management Committee
and Convenor of the Positive Living Centre.
Bradley distinguished himself as a vigorous advocate for the rights
and interests of positive people.
Above all, Bradley led debate and discussion among positive people
and the general community about the need for an independent and self determined
organisation for people living with the virus.
His greatest legacy will be the contribution which he made
to developing a popular culture which recognised the importance of giving people living
with HIV/AIDS a pre-eminent part in devising and implementing our response to the virus.
In moving to establish an independent state-wide organisation of
positive people, the Victorian AIDS Council and Gay Men's Health Centre recognises
Bradley's early contribution to those debates and his vigorous commitment to promoting and
protecting the rights of positive people.
In a subsequent interview with the Melbourne Star Observer which, during
Bradley's tenure, had often published critical, but often inaccurate and unbalanced
articles about the organisation under his presidency, O'Reilly said that Bradley made his
contributions to the VAC and the HIV positive community under "enormous stress".
He went on to assert: "He actually pioneered the recognition that PLWHAs needed to be
totally self determined in their response; he was a vociferous and effective advocate for
positive people."
(4 Sep 97)
APN+, the Asia Pacific Network of People living with HIV/AIDS, has
recently been successful in a funding submission to UNAIDS to establish a Human Rights
Initiative in the Asia Pacific region. This is a global first in terms of a regional
documentation of human rights violations in relation to HIV. The fact that the project is
designed and implemented by people living with AIDS is significant and necessary in order
to stimulate debate and develop a comprehensive understanding of the interrelationship
between Human Rights and HIV/AIDS in the region, to provide PLWHA with the information to
enable self-advocacy, and to work towards legal reform and more enlightened public health
policy
For a full report, see Positive Victorians
Contributing to the Global Response to HIV/AIDS.
(24Aug 97)
A Public Forum was held on Saturday 23 August 1997, organised by the Victorian AIDS
Council and the current PLWHA (Victoria) program of the Council. The meeting was
advertised as being a consultative mechanism on the creation of a statewide independent
organisation for positive people. The meeting was attended by less than a dozen positive
people.
Victorian AIDS Council President, Joseph O'Reilly, placed the move towards creating an
autonomous PLWHA organisation in the context of recent organisational changes within the
AIDS Council. Of particular interest was the creation of a new "HIV Services
Unit", formed out a merger between the Support Program, which provides home-based
services using a regional network of volunteers and the PLWHA Program which provided
community and peer-based support and services, largely through the Positive Living Centre
in St Kilda.
PLWHA Deputy Convenor, John Daye, explained the background to the negotiations towards
autonomy and presented a draft mission statement and aims for the
new organisation (reproduced below).
Concern was expressed by a number of participants at the lack of any indication of the
ongoing provision of peer education and peer support services through the independent
organisation. Daye explained that the main focus of the organisation would be on advocacy.
It was suggested by some participants that, although advocacy was an undeniably important
and necessary activity, the State Government had been ruthless in its funding cuts to
similar advocacy-based bodies across Victoria. Similar antipathy had been shown by the
Federal Government, defunding agencies such as the housing advocacy group
"Shelter". The retention of relevant peer-based and peer-managed education and
services would broaden the activity base of the organisation. It was also pointed out that
agencies involved purely in advocacy and information provision did not qualify for
sales-tax exempt status.
In response to further questioning as to why some services and, more importantly
resources currently administered by the PLWHA program could not be simply retained by the
new organisation, O'Reilly insisted that people should realise that this was not about the
simple transfer of resources from VAC, but about the creation of an entirely new
organisation. Daye explained that the activities and detailed purposes of the new
organisation would only be determined by its first elected Board, and as the organisation
evolved. According to Daye, a formal documented agreement would be negotiated with VAC,
promising initial support and resources. When pressed, O'Reilly indicated that this
initial support would likely take the form of a computer and an Executive Officer who
would guide the organisation through to incorporation. In the longer term, it would then
be up to the new organisation to seek its own funding and support.
Prominent PLWHAs have been pressing for years for a truly autonomous voice for positive
people. Such moves have always been vigorously apposed by the VAC in the past. Most
recently, VAC Honorary Solicitor, David Owen, was revealed to have registered in his own
name but, according to former General Manager, Bernard Gardiner, on the VAC's behalf a
number of business names. These names included "PLWHA Victoria", "People
Living with HIV/AIDS Victoria". The registrations were made the day following the
1995 annual general meeting of the VAC, without the knowledge or approval of the outgoing
or incoming Boards. The Office of Fair Trading and Business Affairs has confirmed that
neither the VAC or David Owen have actually conducted business under any of these names.
The registrations may be interpreted as indicating the extent to which interests within
the VAC at the time were prepared to go in order to block the emergence of a legitimately
independent PLWHA organisation.
The community should now be questioning the basis on which the VAC is now prepared to
let PLWHA (Victoria) go, and should insist that a fair, meaningful and adequate allocation
of resources and staff be transferred to the new organisation. The very notion of a new
"HIV Services Unit", despite the promises of the inclusion of openly identifying
positive people on a number of Advisory Committees in VAC, reinforces the view of people
living with HIV/AIDS as passive service recipients. The international literature shows
that the health outcomes for people living with chronic illnesses are significantly better
when activities such as peer education and peer support are managed and 'owned' by
affected people themselves.
People Living with HIV/AIDS (Victoria) Inc is an independent, membership based
organisation for positive people whose mission is to empower people living with HIV/AIDS,
and to improve their quality of life through advocacy, support and representation,
in a manner which is non-judgemental, and respects each person's rights to independence,
dignity and privacy.
Aims
