I acknowledge the traditional owners, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri peoples, and pay my respect to elders past and present.
I would like to welcome Lady Roslyn Morauta.
I recognise Minister Butler, Senator Birmingham, Senator Pratt, Senator Smith, Senator Ruston and other parliamentary colleagues who join us today.
And I thank Health Equity Matters for bringing us together once again to mark World AIDS Day.
This breakfast is important to me because it is an annual reminder that Australia's success in responding to HIV/AIDS comes down to one fundamental fact: we have always worked together.
Putting the public good above all else.
For people today who were not around then, it's hard to imagine how different the world was in the early days of HIV/AIDS.
To get to where we are today demanded cutting through layers of fear and stigma.
And where we are today is an extraordinary achievement. Less than 0.2 percent of Australians are living with HIV - with new infections declining by 46 percent over the past 10 years.
Of those who are diagnosed, 95 percent are receiving treatment, and 98 percent have an undetectable viral load.
All up, one of the very best responses in the world, and the result of enduring coalitions that many people worked together to build.
Coalitions of public health experts, scientists, the community, politicians from across the parliament.
Everyone here - indeed our nation - benefits from their legacy.
This year we lost a giant among them: Bill Whittaker.
Bill was a great Australian and a true leader. Among other roles, he was the first CEO of the AIDS Council of New South Wales, and President of what is now Health Equity Matters.
Bill understood that grandstanding and point scoring were luxuries his community couldn't afford. We needed to find common ground where it had never been before.
As one of his friends said, Bill was attentive to different perspectives, and to the need to create space to collaborate despite those different perspectives.
A lesson for today.
When we look at what happened in so many other places, it's clear that the determination and courage of people like Bill and his collaborators saved countless lives.
And they showed us that HIV/AIDS is something we can overcome. Yet we all know the fight is far from over.
Almost 40 million people are living with HIV - nearly 7 million of them in the Indo-Pacific.
And the rate of new infections continues to rise for some of our closest neighbours.
That is why Australia is so serious about our partnership with the Global Fund, and with leaders and communities in the Indo-Pacific.
We are helping to strengthen the HIV response in many places including PNG, the Philippines, Cambodia and Indonesia.
And today, I announce a new $3 million partnership with the Centre for Community Health Research and Development, a Vietnam-based NGO.
This partnership will help Vietnam and Laos provide universal access to integrated HIV services.
Friends, it is within our reach to end AIDS by 2030. And to do that, we need to do internationally what we have always done at home, and keep working together.
