The National Cervical Screening Program (NCSP) is failing to meet the needs of Indigenous Australian women, resulting in many women not regularly participating in cervical screening. This study offers recommendations that will help screening providers support Indigenous women to start and continue to screen regularly.

This is the first report to monitor the National Cervical Screening Program since it introduced 5-yearly HPV tests in 2017. In 2018, among women aged 25–74, 1,795,395 had an HPV test, and 9% of all screening HPV tests performed were positive for HPV types that can cause cervical cancer.

This is the third report from an Australian-first project, combining screening, cancer, death, and HPV vaccination data to demonstrate the effects of screening and HPV vaccination on cervical cancer and precancerous abnormalities and to discern cervical screening behaviour.

Australia was one of the frst countries to make the transition from cytology-based to HPV-based cervical screening.This analysis of the national program’s transition to a new model looks at the lessons learnt that can provide valuable insights to other settings.

This is the last monitoring report (to 30 June 2017) for the previous ‘pap test-based’ National Cervical Screening Program, which ceased on 30 November 2017.