Policy, Science & Research

Policy and Advocacy 

Burnett Foundation Aotearoa protects and promotes the health and rights of rainbow communities and all people living with HIV by developing policy, influencing decisionmakers, and forming strategic partnerships to advance our work in ending new HIV transmissions, reducing STI transmissions, and supporting great sexual and reproductive health. We work with legislators, researchers, policymakers, and service providers to help them to understand and address the needs of our communities. 

We have been advocating for rainbow communities and for people living with HIV from the very beginning of the epidemic, and the organisation’s inception in 1985. Our focus is on responding to key issues in rainbow sexual health and HIV policy and advocacy, while mapping out future challenges and opportunities. 

Our work focuses on a broad range of issues as they impact on sexual health as well as the prevention of HIV and other STIs, and care and support for people living with HIV, including: 

• Making combination HIV prevention (condoms, lube, PrEP and U=U) available to those who need it in our communities in our efforts to end new HIV transmissions. 
• Advocating for representation of trans and non-binary people in health data and epidemiological surveillance.
• Advocating for research on combination HIV prevention to measure current knowledge, use, intention to use, and other behavioural data. 
• Ensuring access to HIV education, testing and treatment, and securing access to a wider variety of HIV testing and prevention services. Collaborating with ASHM, NZSHS and sexual health clinicians to develop training, guidelines, and resources to improve PrEP knowledge among health professionals. 
• Advocating for and shaping national strategy, policy and guidance on preventing HIV transmission, and ensuring goals and targets are met in local, national, regional and international strategies. 
• Monitoring and influencing immigration and insurance policy and challenging unfair policy decisions which could have a negative impact on the health of people living with HIV, and ensuring all people living with HIV (no matter their visa status) know that they are entitled to treatment within New Zealand. 
• Providing leadership in health workforce development and research-based policy development to ensure the needs of our communities are met. 
• Influencing legal and policy developments, police and prosecutor practice and media narrative on the criminalisation of HIV transmission and the treatment of PLHIV. 
• Advocating for our broader rainbow and takatāpui communities, in partnership with our sector stakeholders.  
• With our new strategic plan (link) and our expansion into working for rainbow sexual health, we continue to broaden our scope and to work towards best research, advocacy, policy, and practice for great rainbow sexual and reproductive health for rainbow people and takatāpui.  

If you have any questions about our policy and advocacy work, would like to feed into our work or have policy issues which you think should be brought to our attention, please contact our Policy and Science Team at [email protected] 

Position Statements 

Burnett Foundation Aotearoa prepares a range of resources as part of our HIV and public health policy work to inform the work that we do. These resources include policy position statements, background briefings, and issues papers. 

New Zealand HIV and STI Research

Burnett Foundation Aotearoa are part of a network of research occurring across the country. For more information about research occurring in Aotearoa New Zealand follow the links below: 

Sex and Prevention of Transmission Study (SPOTS)
AIDS Epidemiology Group 
New Zealand Sexual Health Society 
The Transgender Health Research Lab

Briefing to the Incoming Parliament 2023-2026 

In 2023, we developed a Briefing to the Incoming Parliament. The briefing identifies three priorities to help us achieve our goal of being the first nation in the world to eliminate both local HIV transmissions and deaths due to AIDS-related causes, and ensure people living with HIV have healthy lives free from stigma and discrimination.

We have also highlighted immediate actions that can happen now to eliminate disparities in access to both prevention and treatment, as well as support for people living with HIV.

Read the briefing here. 

Submissions 

We regularly advocate on issues relating to HIV or issues pertinent to our communities through submissions to local councils, government departments, PHARMAC, and Medsafe to name a few. The issues we submit on relate to HIV and STI prevention, support for people living with HIV, and the health and wellbeing of communities affected by HIV and our broader rainbow and takatāpui communities. 

In recent years we have got PrEP publicly funded by PHARMAC and seen the eligibility criteria and range of prescribers expand, we have seen the removal of the CD4 threshold for treatment access for people living with HIV, got funding for a wider range of condoms, and removed discriminatory immigration regulations against people living with HIV.

Here are some of our recent submissions: 

2025

• Big Gay Out Advocacy Brief

• Submission on use of puberty blockers

2024

• Submission on the Principles of the Treaty of Waitangi Bill

• Letter to Police Commissioner on violence against gay men in Christchurch

• Briefing to Minister Doocey on Funded Home Self-Tests for Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI)

• Briefing to Minister Doocey on the Mpox pandemic response

• Briefing to Minister Doocey on Access to HIV Prevention Among Temporary Migrants

• Letter to Minister Reti on Access to HIV Prevention among temporary migrants

2023

• Submission on the Therapeutic Products Bill 
• Letter to PHARMAC on national STAT dispensing of antiretroviral treatment

2022

• Feedback to PHARMAC on the proposed changes to funding of emtricitabine with tenofovir disoproxil for preexposure prophylaxis of HIV (PrEP) and antiretrovirals for post-exposure prophylaxis of HIV (PEP) 

2020

• Feedback to PHARMAC on the widening of PrEP prescriber eligibility, and proposal of further changes
• Feedback to Medsafe Medicines Classification Committee on the decision to regulate Amyl Nitrates (poppers) 
• Submission to Ministry of Health/MBIE Working Group on suggested changes to immigration health requirements for people living with HIV 

2019

• Feedback to PHARMAC on the funding of a wider range of funded condoms, and the decision to not have a funded lubricant 
• Feedback to PHARMAC on widening eligibility for PEP 
• Feedback to PHARMAC on the proposed competing of the INSTI market for the treatment of HIV 
• Advice to Medsafe Medicines Classification Committee's 63rd meeting on the regulation of Amyl Nitrates (poppers) 
• Application to PHARMAC to fund TAF 

Sign Up for Our Research Update 

We keep track of local and international research and policy developments. If you are professionally involved or have interest in HIV or sexual health research, current practice or policy, sign up here to start receiving e-mails with some of the highlights.