George Christensen (Dawson, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Home Affairs. Will the minister update the House on the enhanced border measures the Morrison government is implementing in response to the unfolding COVID-19 situation in Papua New Guinea?

Peter Dutton (Dickson, Liberal Party, Minister for Home Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I thank the honourable member for his question. I was up in Mackay last week, and they love George Christensen in Mackay. He's a great advocate for his local community and for North Queensland as well.

The government has made announcements today in relation to our response to provide support to our friends and to our family in Papua New Guinea. At the same time, we have taken actions to protect Australia from the potential spread of the virus across the Torres Strait. I can inform the House that in March of last year we took a decision to stand up Operation Overarch, which was designed to protect the Torres Strait protected zone. Very early on in this pandemic we took a decision to look at the way in which this was unfolding, particularly in Asia and China at the time, and to close our borders to the rest of the world. That is a decision that we took that stood us in such good stead and to this very day has been at the heart of our success in keeping this virus under control. We don't want the virus sneaking across what is obviously a very small area, and we don't want people in North Queensland, particularly Indigenous communities, facing the incursion of that disease.

We have a remarkable effort underway—as I say, it's been underway now for 12 months—by Australian Border Force personnel and Australian Defence Force personnel working in concert with the Queensland Police Service, Queensland Health and other Commonwealth agencies to make sure that we do have an extra layer of protection across the Torres Strait. As all Australians know, it is a very, very narrow point. The Torres Strait separates Cape York, in Far North Queensland, from the PNG mainland by only 150 kilometres. There are over 200 islands in the strait, 17 of which are inhabited. We have the ability to provide support at that southern end of Papua New Guinea, and we do that on a regular basis, but we want to do that in a way that doesn't see the virus spread into Australia.

I want to commend the work of the ABF officers, the Australian Defence Force officers and all of those who are involved in Operation Overarch. It is designed to keep Australians safe and healthy, which has been the wont of this government from the first day of our response to this virus. At the same time, we are providing additional support to our family and friends in Papua New Guinea, and we'll continue to do that.