MARK GIBSON, HOST: Well for the second time in three weeks, Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, has flown into Perth. And for the second time in three weeks, the PM is here in the breakfast studio at ABC Radio Perth. Good morning to you.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good to be here, Mark.
GIBSON: You're racking up more of a world tour than Taylor Swift at the moment. You've just been in the US at the weekend. Quick stop in Canberra. Here you are in the West.
The Prime Minister, Premier of Western Australia and Western Australian Transport Minister have today marked the completion of the entire elevated rail structure as part of the historic METRONET Victoria Park-Canning Level Crossing Removal Project.
The Level Crossing Removal Project will improve safety, reduce congestion and improve travel times in the area, while also creating more than 4300 jobs for Western Australians.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Good afternoon. My Government has said that we would make sure that Australians are not paying one cent more than they should when they go to the supermarket. We continue to deliver. Today, we are launching the exposure draft of our new mandatory food and grocery code, as well as the amendments to legislation that we will introduce into the parliament this year. We're launching the exposure draft so that we can ensure that there's full transparency about where the Government intends to head.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: Well, it's been a very successful Quad Meeting, and one of the things we agreed on was that Quad stands for, Quick United Assistance Delivery, and we have a range of really practical initiatives. So firstly, the Quad Cancer Moonshot Initiative, that of course, aims to reduce the number of lives lost to cancer in the Indo-Pacific. Australia will contribute $29.6 million to that initiative, $13.1 million of that is from the Minderoo Foundation. The expansion of maritime domain awareness, this is something that Australia has been involved in.
Today, we—Prime Minister Anthony Albanese of Australia, Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida of Japan, and President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. of the United States—met for the fourth in-person Quad Leaders Summit, hosted by President Biden in Wilmington, Delaware.
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.
The Leaders of Australia, the United States, India and Japan have together launched the Quad Cancer Moonshot initiative, with the aim of saving lives and preventing cervical cancer in the Indo-Pacific.
Australia is on track to be the first country in the world to eliminate cervical cancer, yet women in the Pacific die of the disease at up to 13 times the rate of women in Australia.
The ground-breaking human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine to prevent cervical cancer was invented and developed at the University of Queensland by Australian of the Year Professor Ian Frazer.
Today Prime Minister Anthony Albanese met with Quad Leaders, President of the United States Joseph R. Biden Jr., Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, and Prime Minister Kishida Fumio of Japan for the 2024 Quad Leaders’ Summit in Delaware, United States.
The meeting underscored Australia’s deep commitment to the future prosperity and stability of the Indo-Pacific. Through the Quad, Australia is working with three of our most important partners to shape the kind of region in which we want to live—an open, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific.
Good afternoon everyone.
I’m delighted to be here among friends, and to continue our important work as Quad partners.
Thank you, President Biden, for hosting and welcoming us - it’s an honour to be here with you in your beautiful home state of Delaware.
I’m also so pleased to see you, Prime Minister Modi, and you, Prime Minister Kishida.
Coming together today demonstrates that the Quad is building its momentum.
For Australia, the Quad is a key instrument to promote stability in our region.
A stronger Quad means a stronger Australia.
ANTHONY ALBANESE, PRIME MINISTER: It was my great honour to be invited to have a meeting with President Biden at his Home in Wilmington. It was wonderful to be invited into his home for a one on one firstly and a bit of a look around his home, and a one-on-one chat, and then a 90-minute meeting between myself and our Delegation and President Biden, Secretary Blinken and the National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, as well as the Ambassador to Australia, Kennedy. It was a very warm and engaging discussion.