I’m delighted to be here today alongside my good friends President Biden, Prime Minister Modi and Prime Minister Kishida.
The unifying principle of the Quad is that we can achieve more together than on our own.
Our work on health is a powerful example of that.
At the very first Quad Leaders’ Summit, chaired by President Biden, the Quad agreed to work together to improve access to COVID vaccines.
As a result, more than 400 million vaccine doses made their way into communities in the Indo-Pacific.
That changed lives. It saved lives.
That’s what the Quad Cancer Moonshot Initiative is all about.
This program builds on one of President Biden’s signature policy initiatives – not just in his term as President but throughout his time in public life.
It’s a reflection of the ambition and empathy, the vision and compassion that has defined his leadership.
It’s about understanding people’s pain – and doing something to help.
This is personal for the President and for Dr Biden. It is personal for all of us.
Because in our nations, as in every part of the world – cancer casts its shadow on the lives of our citizens and our loved ones.
Australia is proud of the leading role we’ve played preventing cervical cancer worldwide.
The HPV vaccine was developed at the University of Queensland by Australian of the Year, Professor Ian Frazer.
That vaccine, together with improvements in screening and treatment means Australia is on track to be the first country in the world to eliminate cervical cancer.
Yet beyond our shores, the story is very different. 1 in 4 global cervical cancer cases occur in the Indo-Pacific.
And, tragically, women in the Pacific die of the disease at up to 13 times the rate of women in Australia.
These people are not numbers – they are our neighbours, members of our Pacific family.
And we are stepping forward to help.
Today I can announce that the Australia is expanding our funding commitment to the Elimination Partnership in the Indo-Pacific for Cervical Cancer — known as EPICC.
Alongside a generous contribution from the Minderoo Foundation, the expansion will use Australian cervical cancer expertise to help more partner governments get HPV vaccine programs up and running across the region.
This will also increase screening and treatment, and provide support for health workers.
It will build on what we’ve learned in the Western Highlands of Papua New Guinea and Vanuatu and make it available to Malaysia, Timor-Leste, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Fiji and Nauru as well.
It is fitting that this cancer moonshot takes its name from a famous American achievement that inspired the world.
A choice America made to mobilise its collective talent and go to the moon.
Not because it was easy – but because it was hard.
That’s the spirit of this endeavour.
All of us know that curing cancer, defeating it once and for all, will be hard.
But not as hard as the lonely, exhausting, physical and emotional ordeal of diagnosis and treatment.
And never as hard as losing the people we love.
In 1969, seven years after President Kennedy called on his fellow Americans to organise and measure the best of their abilities to meet an unprecedented challenge the world watched as two Americans walked on the moon.
The images of that defining moment in human history were carried to Tokyo and Osaka, New Delhi and Chennai, Wilmington and Washington DC, by the Australian radio telescope in Parkes.
Australians will always be proud of the part we played in sharing that triumph of science and human courage with the world.
We are proud to stand with the United States, India and Japan in this shared effort to change lives for the better.