Good morning all.
I acknowledge the women of the lands of the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, the traditional owners of the Canberra region, and pay my respects to elders past, present and emerging.
Thank you to Health Equity Matters for bringing us all together again to commemorate World AIDS Day, and I'm very glad to be joined here by many parliamentary colleagues, by members of the diplomatic board and by guests from across the Pacific.
Can I specifically acknowledge my ministerial colleagues, Mark Butler, Anne Aly and Pat Conroy, the co-chairs of the parliamentary friends group, the wonderful Renee Coffey and Tim Wilson. I acknowledge Anne Ruston is here, also Dean Smith, who I was very pleased to work with over many years on marriage equality. It's good to be here with you.
It's good to be here to reflect on all that has been achieved, and as always acknowledge the hard work which still lies ahead. Can I also pay tribute to Helen Evans for her relentless, forensic, determined, quiet but powerful leadership over many years. Thank you.
Professor Evans remarked, and as did Renee, that we do face very difficult global challenges.
That includes here in our region.
Our friends in Fiji saw 1,600 new HIV cases recorded last year.
Papua New Guinea has formally declared HIV a national crisis.
These facts underline a challenge I have spoken about a lot lately: that at a time when development challenges and humanitarian crises are burgeoning, traditional development partners are dramatically reducing ODA levels.
The full impact of these cuts are only starting to be felt, but there will be consequences for the region in which we live.
How are we responding? Well, we're responding by reprioritising our development investments to bolster support for our region.
We know we cannot fill every gap, but what we are determined to do is utilise the resources we have to focus on the region in which we live.
We are targeting high impact investments. We want to build resilience. We want to respond to needs.
And as I often say, this is an investment not only in the health and stability of our neighbours, but it is an investment in the stability of our region which is good for our country.
So even as others step back, Australia will play our part, and we should always do that, and that includes on HIV.
And so this morning, I announced Australia will provide a further $48 million to support the Pacific's HIV crisis response.
This new six year initiative builds on our $3.9 million commitment to implement Fiji's HIV outbreak response plan, that I announced in Suva in May.
And it complements the near tripling of Australia's HIV development funding to Papua New Guinea and our $266 million commitment to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Our offer is to co-invest in Pacific-led national efforts, providing technical assistance, working hand in hand with the communities most affected.
It's always good to come here to speak. We always have to do it, because of when World AIDS Day is, in the last week of the Parliament, which is often quite a contested week.
So it is heartwarming to come to an event where there is still bipartisanship.
And whether you've been personally impacted by HIV, or you are a dedicated ally, World AIDS Day reminds us that nobody faces this fight alone.
It has been the collective strength of a movement that has changed how our country thinks and how the world thinks about HIV/AIDS.
How the world addresses HIV/AIDS.
That this has always been a collective effort and a collective responsibility.
Community working together with government, public health and scientists.
All with the courage to persist in the face of fear and of stigma.
And it is because of this collective effort that Australia has had what Professor Evans describes as a gold standard response to the HIV crisis.
It is that sense of shared partnership and responsibility that will ensure we prevail.
It is that sense of partnership and responsibility that we seek to bring at home, in our region, and in the world.
So I thank you for inviting me once again, and I look forward to another year of partnership.