Well, thank you, Jeremy. And can I also echo the cknowledgement of Country and pay my respects to the Elders of the the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people, whose land we are coming together on this morning.
I welcome you all to this breakfast again. Simon and Penny put it beautifully.
This is an extraordinary event that brings together a sense of loss and grief and recollection of the deep stigma and discrimination in those early years, particularly, of this epidemic.
But also celebration, frankly, of the achievement - the achievement, particularly, of the community.
Scott Harlum and I were talking earlier this morning about this sector being an exemplar, not just a sector that can celebrate its achievements in this disease area itself, but an exemplar for the health sector more broadly.
A patient led, consumer led movement that grew out of struggle, and has so much to teach other areas, so much to teach government about how we can develop policy, co-design programs in so many other areas of health as well.
At last year's breakfast, I released the report of the HIV Taskforce, and this was just the latest chapter of a community led co-designed response to this longstanding epidemic. And it was an ambitious document.
It really set Australia up, hopefully, to be the first country in the world to end HIV transmission by the end of this decade.
And if we can't do it, if you look around the world, I'm not sure which country can.
That's an awesome responsibility for all of us. That's one I feel as I read through that document and as I go through the reports that Andrew Grulich is going to talk to you about around transmission rates in Australia right now.
Because the truth is, while the trajectory is positive, we are not on track to reach the virtual end of transmission by the end of this decade.
New infection rates are down by about a third in the past 10 years. We need to accelerate that trajectory considerably.
As Lady Roslyn said, though there are some tools available to us now.
We are going to have to change the game, here. We have made extraordinary inroads in the epicenters, the early epicenters of the epidemic.
In the inner west of Sydney, for example, we have achieved virtual elimination of transmission.
That is a global exemplar, recognised on the global stage as something to strive for.
But we know there are hard-to-reach populations in our community that require a different response.
And that really is at the heart of the Taskforce recommendations and the heart of our investments in this year's Budget: to do things differently.
To look at PrEP for people who are not eligible for Medicare, a very big investment in this year's Budget.
To communicate differently, building on the terrific foundations of Emen8, the tool from ACON, but to target hard-to-reach communities, particularly CALD communities.
To target health professionals in those communities who might not have been reached yet, about the best practice in this area.
And to explore the extraordinary opportunities for self testing Lady Roslyn talked about as well, expanding on the work that NAPWHA has been doing, but also some of the pilots for the self-testing vending machines we've been conducting, particularly in universities.
This is at the heart of our investment this year and something we need to accelerate and push forward, if we are going to achieve the ambitions set out in the HIV Taskforce Report.
I also want to say, though, that since the last Breakfast, I was really proud that we became the fourth country to sign the U=U Statement.
A reflection of the science, but particularly at a time when science is increasingly contested at a global level, it is an important thing for our country to do - a country recognised as a leader in response to the HIV epidemic.
To say very firmly and forthrightly, 'U=U', was something I was very proud that our country was able to do.
Finally, can I thank again those same partners who have been at the table with us as government for so long: Health Equity Matters, NAPWHA, the Scarlet Alliance, the clinicians and researchers represented by ASHM, and so many others besides, for moving on from the Taskforce Report and getting the 9th Strategy done as well.
I'm delighted we've been able to get that together for today's Breakfast. There's only a few copies, so share them around. They'll be they'll be distributed more liberally over the next week or two.
And I think you'll find it's a document that reflects the best traditions of the HIV response in this country, but along with the ambitions of the Taskforce Report to end transmission by the end of this decade.
I can say it's been endorsed by all jurisdictions. And so it is a solid foundation for us to move forward over the next six years and get this job done.
Thank you all very much for coming along to Parliament again and for welcoming us to your breakfast. Thank you.
