Second World AIDS Day Parliamentary Breakfast (2025)

The second World AIDS Day Parliamentary Breakfast 2025, held in the Banquet Hall at Parliament in Wellington on 1 December 2025, brings together politicians, health leaders, community organisations and people living with HIV to reflect on the past four decades of the HIV / AIDS epidemic and to recommit to ending HIV transmission in Aotearoa New Zealand by 2030.

The event opens with a powerful mihi whakatau from Nate Rowe. This is followed by MC Mark Fisher, Executive Director of Body Positive, who sets out the kaupapa for World AIDS Day 2025 in Aotearoa: achieving the 2030 goals that all people living with HIV enjoy healthy lives free from stigma and discrimination, and that HIV transmission is eliminated. He notes the strong cross-sector turnout – MPs, health sector workers, community advocates and people living with HIV – and highlights the presence of a New Zealand AIDS Memorial Quilt block on loan from Te Papa, selected because it reflects the diversity of communities affected by HIV, including women, Māori leaders like Eddie Thompson Shore, and medical professionals such as Dr Buddy Brandt.

Hon. Matt Doocey, Minister for Mental Health and Associate Minister of Health, acknowledges mana whenua, parliamentary colleagues and community organisations including Burnett Foundation Aotearoa, Body Positive, Positive Women, Toitū te Ao, NZPC: Aotearoa New Zealand Sex Workers' Collective and Needle Exchange Services. He outlines how advances in treatment mean that, when people are linked to care, many now live long and healthy lives with HIV. He cites a sustained decline in locally acquired infections among gay and bisexual men since 2016, alongside concerning increases among Māori and people diagnosed overseas, which underscore the need for culturally tailored, Māori-led services, expanded testing and better outreach. Doocey details the HIV Action Plan’s goals to eliminate local transmission by 2030 and ensure people living with HIV can live free from stigma, describing funding commitments, additional contact tracers, updated clinical guidelines, innovative HIV and STI testing services, a national anti-stigma campaign, and a new monitoring report tracking 32 indicators across five strategic goals. He also references New Zealand’s $4 million contribution to Fiji’s HIV outbreak response and the Innovation Fund grants that support community-led projects, including new whānau counselling services at Burnett Foundation Aotearoa.

The keynote address from long-time HIV activist and founding director of Rainbow Tick, Michael Stevens, provides the emotional core of the recording and is rich in HIV stigma and resilience history. Speaking as a middle-class gay man living with HIV, Stevens recalls the intense fear and dehumanising stigma of the early epidemic: bodies wrapped in plastic and buried in quicklime, children like Eve van Grafhorst ostracised at preschool, and gay men depicted as deserving of disease and death. He shares deeply personal memories of living in New York and Istanbul in the 1980s, of friends dying, of being told by a London doctor in 1988 to “go back to New Zealand and get ready to die”, and of TB isolation in hospital. His story traces how community-led responses – safer sex campaigns, the creation of the New Zealand AIDS Foundation (now Burnett Foundation Aotearoa) and networks of care – emerged in the absence of state leadership, and how homosexual law reform was intertwined with the HIV response. Stevens argues that HIV stigma persists because the virus is tangled up with sex, death and moral judgement, especially around same-sex behaviour, and insists that HIV is a virus, not divine punishment. He calls on listeners to challenge stigma wherever they encounter it, reminding them that thanks to treatment, people with suppressed viral loads are healthy and should not be morally judged.

The panel discussion on U=U (Undetectable = Untransmittable), facilitated by Rodrigo Olin German from Burnett Foundation Aotearoa, brings together lived experience and indigenous perspectives from Judith Mukakayange (Positive Women), Milly Stewart (Toitū te Ao) and Dr Tāwhanga Nopera (Body Positive). Rodrigo explains the science behind U=U, referencing decades of research and studies that found zero sexual transmissions where viral load was undetectable, and frames U=U as a global movement that has transformed HIV prevention and reduced stigma. Judith describes U=U as restoring her humanity, freeing her from the fear of infecting loved ones and equipping her to challenge blatant prejudice – such as calls to “lock up” people living with HIV – and to advocate for rights in housing, employment and health care. She points out that stigma still drives mental distress, job loss, housing discrimination and reluctance to access services, and calls for legal frameworks and Ministry of Health guidance to fully reflect U=U so that health professionals, rest-home staff and the wider public stop treating people living with HIV as dangerous.

Milly Stewart speaks directly to the Minister. She urges those in power to sit with those living with HIV, to listen to their experiences of stigma and exclusion, and to co-design solutions that honour Te Tiriti o Waitangi and tino rangatiratanga. Dr Tāwhanga Nopera links U=U to indigenous knowledge and wellbeing, arguing for a shift from top-down “health over there” models to approaches that recognise people’s own mana, whakapapa and internal knowledge. Tāwhanga stresses that funding must reach community organisations that hold lived experience, rather than being captured by larger institutions that then repackage their solutions. Judith also highlights gaps for women living with HIV – particularly around breastfeeding and childbirth – where outdated or hard-to-find guidance leads to fear and inconsistent care.

Returning to the stage, Mark Fisher reinforces that “HIV is the virus, stigma is the disease” and reiterates the call for a clear, high-level government statement endorsing U=U and the reality of zero transmission risk for people on effective treatment. Such a statement is framed as essential to reforming criminal law on non-disclosure, reducing discrimination in housing and employment, and embedding modern HIV science across the system.

In the closing segment, newly appointed Executive Director of Burnett Foundation Aotearoa, Liz Gibbs, situates the breakfast within a broader movement of HIV community organisations that have carried this kaupapa for decades. She celebrates historic lows in new HIV diagnoses in Aotearoa while warning that “business as usual” will not get the country to zero by 2030, especially when reaching people beyond traditional urban and gay male hubs. Gibbs calls for full and formal government adoption of U=U, proper resourcing of community-based HIV prevention and support, and the meaningful involvement of people living with HIV in all decision-making. She announces the Burnett Foundation Innovation Challenge, funded with philanthropic partners, to harness AI and digital technologies for HIV prevention, stigma reduction and equitable access to services.

The recording ends with a reaffirmation that zero locally acquired HIV transmission by 2030 is achievable, and that Aotearoa can once again be a country of firsts – this time in delivering a future free from HIV stigma, grounded in dignity, inclusion and community-led innovation.

This summary is created using Generative AI. Although it is based on the recording's transcription, it may contain errors or omissions. Click here to learn more about how this summary was created.

Heta Timu Judith Mukakayange Liz Gibbs Mark Fisher Matt Doocey Michael Stevens Milly Stewart Nate Rowe Rodrigo Olin German Tāwhanga Nopera

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