Bill Bowtell

Strategic Policy Advisor

Bill Bowtell is a strategic policy adviser, with particular interest in national and international health policy structures and reform. In 1984, as senior adviser to the Australian health minister, he played a significant role in the introduction of the Medicare health insurance system and was also an architect of Australia’s successful and well-regarded response to HIV/AIDS.

"The Hawke Government was elected in 1983 and its core social policy plank was the introduction of Medicare. As senior advisor to the health minister at the time I was glad to implement that. Universal access to health, medical and hospital, on the basis of clinical need and not income, was a huge social advance. It was really fantastic to be a part of that big change in Australian health and social policy."

Unfortunately the newly elected Hawke Government co-incided almost exactly with the arrival of HIV in Australia.

"As senior adviser to the Health Minister when we had to deal with this completely unexpected crisis that really affected the gay community, amongst others," says Bowtell. "The five years that followed saw the community put in an immense amount of creative effort to get on top of the problem. We pushed for effective and sensible policies, not the policies dictated by the extreme right, which were about abstinence based on fear, panic and hysteria. We adopted policies that were pragmatic and radical and they worked. Many thousands of Australians – perhaps even you – are still with us as a result."

Despite Australia’s successful response to HIV, Bowtell is concerned about the rise in new infections in recent years.

"In the last 3 or 4 years the rates of new HIV infections have almost doubled. I think this is entirely unnecessary. We have to prevent this and to do so we have to talk frankly to young people about sex and drugs, we shouldn’t pretend these things don’t happen. We should be telling every fifteen year old how to protect themselves against infection – HIV is no fun."

Bowtell believes that governments have not done enough in the last five years when it comes to prevention. However, when it comes to those people already living with the virus, Bowtell believes that no other Government looks after them better than we do.

"It’s not perfect, but here they have access to the latest and best treatments, there’s a whole range of social and support services for them, there are charities that help those who are really stressed financially. It could be better, as always, but we do a great deal. Here people have access to treatments regardless of income based on their clinical need. We have excellent doctors, particularly in Sydney, as well as researchers. If you’re a person living with HIV there’d be no better place for you to be living in the world than in Australia."

Bowtell is now the Director of the HIV Aids Project at the Lowe Institute and just recently became Exec Director of the Friends Of The Global Fund Pacific. These days his days are filled with tackling the big policy challenges with HIV AIDS, and working to fund the fight against tuberculosis and malaria internationally.

And how does Bowtell feel about being considered influential? "I’m very honoured of course, although I have to be very humble about it too. My influence and my accomplishments have come about because of the efforts of other people. I have been very glad to work with a vast range of people in the gay and lesbian community who are highly talented and committed. If I’ve been lucky enough to help them do the right thing then I’m very grateful."

By Christian Taylor