Katie Allen (Higgins, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Will the Prime Minister update the House on how the Morrison government is responding to the important issue of the coronavirus outbreak?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Higgins for her question and for her advice and support in the actions the government has taken, given her medical background. The government has taken decisive action when it comes to addressing the very real threat of the coronavirus globally and to Australia specifically. We've been at the leading edge of global initiatives to contain the virus. Those measures, working together with the states and territories, have so far proven very effective.

The national incident response room was set up immediately and led by the Chief Medical Officer, Professor Brendan Murphy. I had the opportunity to visit that incident response room as it was running, very early on in the piece, with the Deputy Prime Minister. Enhanced biosecurity and health screening measures were quickly put in place and strict new travel restrictions were announced for a 14-day period commencing from 1 February. It took more than 24 hours for that travel ban to be put in place and, indeed, for the measure for the United States to be put in place. Self-isolation requirements for Australians and residents returning from mainland China have been put in place. A total of 1.4 million masks have been made available from the national medical stockpile, including for vulnerable people and border, airline and health staff.

We are supporting Australians to return home safely, in particular those who found themselves isolated and vulnerable in the Hubei province in Wuhan. On the first flight 243 Australians were assisted to leave Wuhan, with 241 Australians transferred to Christmas Island and one pregnant woman and her partner transferred to Perth for her support. All repatriated Australians and their families are now being well looked after on Christmas Island. The Defence Force and the Department of Home Affairs are identifying overflow facilities and contingencies should other facilities be required as we work through those issues. The New Zealand government has assisted, and I thank Prime Minister Ardern for her support with some 36 Australian nationals and residents, who have now been transferred to Christmas Island. DFAT is now in the process of registering our intention to undertake a second chartered flight. I spoke to the chief executive of Qantas earlier today and thanked Qantas in particular for their great support through this very difficult period. I want to stress that people should not assume that further flights may be able to be organised into the future, whether from mainland China or, indeed, Wuhan.

Scenario planning is underway with our health professionals to advise the National Security Committee. The economic impacts are being carefully considered, but it is still too early to tell the broader impact. I thank the Treasurer for the work that he's doing with states and territories. We are affording ourselves maximum flexibility to respond to this ongoing crisis. The National Coronavirus Health Information Line is 1800020080.