The first case of AIDS in Australia was diagnosed in November 1982,

and the first death from AIDS occurred in July 1983. By the mid-1980s, the country was witnessing a rapid increase in the HIV/AIDS caseload. Fortunately, however, cases of new HIV infection subsequently declined significantly and have remained at very low levels for nearly 20 years. The HIV epidemic remained largely contained within groups first affected by HIV and did not take hold in the general population. This chapter will examine the policies and programs of successive Aus-tralian national governments, which have assumed the responsibility for fashioning and funding national HIV/AIDS strategies and in the process have built administrative structures to develop, guide, and implement those strategies. It will discuss the introduction of needle and syringe programs in 1986 and the rapid expansion of methadone treatment programs, through which the spread of HIV into the general heterosexually active community has been greatly contained. The chapter will also look at the creation of criti-cal structures that brought together national and provincial health ministers, parliamentarians, clinicians, and community groups to develop HIV/AIDS policies. These political structures helped to build broad parliamentary and public understanding and acceptance of the need for the sometimes unwel-come and controversial measures necessary to contain HIV/AIDS. With some occasional difficulties, Australian public and political sup-port for the fight against HIV/AIDS has been sustained for more than tw