In 2010, the Ministry of Health showed the GLBT community that it understood the needs of people living with HIV by commissioning “The Miller Report”, a report which looked into the services provided to New Zealand’s positive community, prepared by Dr David Miller. Miller, an HIV/AIDS specialist who has worked with UNAIDS programmes in London, Geneva and New Delhi, was brought in as a complete outsider to provide fresh perspective to an issue that is dear to many New Zealanders’ hearts. 


In early 2011, Miller’s recommendation that funding be given to Body Positive, Positive Women and INA, groups that are involved in “HIV awareness, self esteem development and challenging stigma and discrimination at a number of levels” on a shoestring, came to fruition. The Ministry of Health gave each organisation $150,000 worth of funding so that they could focus, without the need to be “constantly distracted from their primary missions by the need to find funding for survival”, as Miller put it. The plight to keep the likes of Body Positive open were over, for a while at least. One can only hope that further funding can be organised; only time will tell.
Another one of Miller’s recommendations was that there be a national review of guidelines and standards for HIV testing and counselling, a coordinated and comprehensive research agenda linked to HIV/AIDS and STIs, and a national conversation around testing. This recommendation is currently being worked on, with groups representing positive people, technical advisors and HIV testing providers meeting to discuss national standards for testing and counselling before and after a positive result is received. 


The only problem with this scheme going about is that two former NZAF staffers – Rachael Le Mesurier and Michael Stevens – are facilitating this project. A huge amount of work on this project has already been done, with no doubt tens of thousands of dollars being put into ensuring the project succeeds. With this sort of investment in time and resources, one would think the Ministry of Health could find facilitators who are independent, just as the ministry did when recruiting David Miller. 
Many would agree that Rachael’s time at the NZAF was not wisely spent, and given that she was still head of the AIDS Foundation when The Miller Report was conducted, one must conclude that despite the number of people involved in the project, her involvement causes conflict of interest issues. 


With these people undertaking the review, any findings or recommendations may not be accepted by the community – or at the very least, they may be looked upon untrustingly – no matter how thorough the review.