Christian Porter (Pearce, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The short answer is: it's not, and obviously I was as concerned as the member was when I read that article. Now, whether or not such a claim was made by any person to the journalist, I obviously can't say or verify, but my office and the department went to some lengths to speak directly with those people at CSL who would be in knowledge of any such statement, if it were ever made, because it is a matter of some seriousness if a Commonwealth official were to say such a thing, which they would never do and which we would never expect them to do; that would be a totally improper and wrong thing to do. So what I can say to the member is that that report, about Commonwealth officials advising CSL that the government had an 'ABV' test, is absolutely wrong. It has been verified directly, after specific inquiries by my office, to my office that it's wrong.

What we are doing, with respect to our approach to market, is looking at all of the options that are in Australia's long-term best interests, in terms of health care: for mRNA manufactured vaccines, potentially, here; for COVID booster vaccines; for other therapeutics; for export markets. CSL have had a brilliant and rich history in Australia in contributing and, indeed, are manufacturing vaccines in Australia as we speak, and they have done a marvellous job. They've put in an excellent proposal, if I might say so. It's being considered seriously, alongside all of the other proposals. So I'm very pleased to say to the member: whether that was ever said to the journalist I can't say, but that was never said by any Commonwealth official to anyone at CSL and nor would it ever be.