A trick Joyce uses all the time is in pretending he's been out there in the community discerning a backlash. Credit:Glenn Hunt The incidence of cervical cancer was already dropping before 2006 because women had pap smears – early diagnosis saves lives. The number of deaths from cervical cancer had already decreased by 40 per cent between 1982 and 2007, with 208 deaths in that final year. It was the third most common cause of gynaecological cancer death with 208 deaths in 2007. But Gardasil had the potential to stop HPV and therefore cervical cancer in its tracks. The conversation in government was intense. To put the drug on the vaccination schedule would cost a bomb – but it would also ensure that cervical cancer deaths would plummet. Even Tony Abbott, then the Health Minister, with three daughters of his own, eventually thought it was a good idea. John Howard was in favour. A truckload of money but worth it to save lives. But not Joyce. He insisted MPs should be allowed to debate its "social implications" and that the decision should not be left to the Therapeutic Goods Administration because "they will talk about the therapeutic aspects -- they are not there to talk about the psychological implications or the social implications". Do you ever wonder if there is any conversation about the social implications of Viagra?

Joyce said: "There might be an overwhelming backlash from people saying, 'Don't you dare put something out there that gives my 12-year-old daughter a licence to be promiscuous'." Looking back through the news stories of the time, there is absolutely no evidence to show that there was any hint of a backlash. It's a trick Joyce uses all the time. He pretends he's been out there in the community discerning a backlash. He did it with same-sex marriage and he did it with Gardasil. Joyce, the father of four daughters, said he would be "personally very circumspect" to provide a vaccine to girls who were too young to cope with the potential consequences of sexual activity. But not too circumspect now to put those same daughters through the consequences of his own promiscuity. I can only hope that his four daughters ignored him. The good news is that the world certainly ignored him. In 2006, Ian Frazer was recognised as Australian of the Year for his 15-year determination to develop the vaccine. In 2007, Gardasil was put on the national vaccination schedule for girls. By 2013, boys could also access it. HPV is sexually transmitted so it makes sense that everyone who has sex is vaccinated, because anyone who has sex can be a carrier.

Also, HPV may be responsible for cancer of the anus, the penis, the vulva and the vagina, so it works to protect anyone with one or more of those body parts. Moreover, it stops the spread of genital warts. The new Gardasil, rolled out last year, is said to provide 93 per cent protection against cancer. It's available in the US, in Europe, in New Zealand and here. The vaccination program, just 11 years later, is preventing cervical disease - the data shows a 17 per cent decline in precancerous lesions in women aged 25 to 29. I had a good look in the news stories of 2013. Joyce didn't make a peep when Gardasil went on the vaccination schedule for boys. Turns out that Joyce didn't need a vaccination - or even a licence - to be promiscuous. Jenna Price is a Fairfax columnist and an academic at the University of Technology Sydney.