The Victorian State Government re-announced the $16.6 million dollars it pledged to help reduce the transmission of HIV and other sexually transmissible diseases this week.

The re-announcement comes on the heels of a report released by the CSIRO journal Sexual Health, which has highlighted Victoria's lagging record with HIV prevention.

The report explains one of the reasons behind the increase in HIV notification in the state is "substantial disinvestment in HIV prevention" in the 1990's, which has led to increasing HIV figures.

The report also cites a relationship strain between the HIV community sectors and the government in Victoria (when compared with NSW), claiming that recently there has been higher investment in NSW, with $545,000 spent on social marketing campaigns, compared with only $15,000 in Victoria.

Both State Health Minister, Daniel Andrews and the Victorian Aids Council CEO, Mike Kennedy have dismissed the report's figures, saying they are from 2005 and don't reflect the current situation. 
 
"New notifications of HIV levelled off in 2007, with 262 new notifications, down [from] 263 in the previous year," Mr Andrew's says.

Mike Kennedy says he believes the VAC's relationship with the government has improved enormously since the report was written. Mr Kennedy says that when HIV numbers fell in the 1990's, there was a scaling back of resources and research into the problem.

"When 2000 came along and we saw a big jump in the figures, it's like if you take away your fire fighting equipment and there is a fire - you can't mount a response. We needed to respond to this increase, there was nothing to respond with," Mr Kennedy says.

"Getting the policy area right was one thing that NSW did that we didn't do and that's now been taken care of," he says.

By ANDIE NOONAN