Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

I want to acknowledge the member for McMahon for his question. One of the highest priorities of this government has been to ensure continued supply of personal protective equipment in what has been an intensely competitive global environment. We've seen the shortages and the suffering not just of health workers but in relation to the broader population, whether it's in Europe, North America, parts of Asia or elsewhere. Against that background, we've been determined to continue, through both domestic production and international procurement, the supply of personal protective equipment. That has included the distribution of 11 million masks to date, which includes 2½ million to primary healthcare networks to support GPs, community pharmacies and Aboriginal and community controlled health organisations; more than a million masks to support those who are assisting in frontline activities; and six million masks to state and territory health departments to support the acute-care sector, in particular hospitals.

We have also, as part of our procurement program, now landed over 30 million masks in Australia. This has been a difficult and challenging task. That is part of a broader order process of 500 million masks. As a consequence, we are now allocating a second round of 11 million masks. Shortly before question time I announced that that would include seven million for states and territories for their frontline public hospitals; 2.3 million for primary health networks, including 1½ million for GPs, 500,000 for community pharmacies, 75,000 for Indigenous workforce and healthcare, and 160,000 for respiratory clinics; and 1.7 million masks for our aged-care workers. We will continue to provide those masks. We are now getting ahead of the curve on this front, but we are very mindful of international supply constraints.

I want to thank our healthcare workers. They are literally saving lives and protecting lives. We will do everything we can to support them and to protect them.

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