Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party, Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Ryan for his question and note his strong and effective advocacy for Pacific peoples not just in his electorate but across South-East Queensland.

It would be remiss of me not to acknowledge the very senior delegation of governors and members from Papua New Guinea we have here today. On behalf of the parliament and the Australian people, thank you for everything you did for us in the season of crisis that we have had here in Australia. We thank Papua New Guinea very deeply, from our hearts.

The health security of Australians living at home or across our wider region is the top priority of the Morrison government. As the Prime Minister and the Minister for Health have daily reminded us, we're working together with our regional neighbours to make sure we stay ahead of the spread of coronavirus. As a priority, we're working closely with our Pacific neighbourhood to help them understand and prepare for a potential outbreak of COVID-19. I'm happy to say that, as of today, outside Australia and New Zealand there are no confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the Pacific or Timor Leste. However, Australia remains vigilant as the possibility of a global pandemic is now widely acknowledged, especially by us here in Australia. In response, we've already made more than $5 million available across the Pacific and Timor Leste. The funding directly supports laboratory diagnosis; personal protective equipment; healthcare workers; risk communication strategies; and national response planning and budgeting.

Together with New Zealand, we've already invested $1 million in the World Health Organization's Pacific office in their COVID-19 response plan. Further, we've sent two experts from the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to the WHO's Pacific technical department in Suva to support the response coordination in our region. With our financial support, our Pacific island countries will now be able to access essential medical stockpiles from the WHO's global stockpile. Our funding is also supporting surge capacity, enabling the WHO to respond to requests for infection prevention, control, clinical management and risk communication.

In addition to what I've just outlined, Australia is building a scalable response plan to manage and assist with a future outbreak of COVID-19 for the Pacific. This plan will cover preparedness, clinical surge response capacity, and partnerships between key Australian sources of public health and medical expertise. The long hot summer that we've seen and the bushfire crisis demonstrated that close and strong familial bond between Australians and Pacific island people. Whether it was the Papua New Guinea defence force, whether it was people raising money in wheelbarrows, collecting money from villages across the Pacific, they turned up for us in our time of need, and we will return that support to Pacific island countries in their time of need.

On behalf of all members, I want to again pass on our thanks to every Pacific island country for their support during the difficult summer we've had. From the outset we have said that we will remain vigilant. Vitally, we stand ready to assist our Pacific neighbours manage any outbreak of COVID-19 as it emerges.