Joanne Ryan (Lalor, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Health and Ageing. Can the minister provide an update on what steps the Albanese government is taking to protect Australians and support passengers affected by the hantavirus outbreak?

Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Leader of the House) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Thank you to the member for Lalor for the question and the opportunity to provide the House with an update on the hantavirus that's connected with the cruise ship MV Hondius.

This morning, I received a further briefing from the Australian Centre for Disease Control and the Chief Medical Officer about any developments in relation to this outbreak. Also this morning, the National Coordination Mechanism between our department, the CDC, NEMA and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade met to finalise the repatriation arrangements for the six passengers being repatriated to Australia. That's four Australian citizens, an Australian permanent resident and a New Zealand citizen.

The latest World Health Organization advice is that there are 11 people who have contracted the hantavirus, three of whom, tragically, have died. All 11 patients are either passengers or crew from the ship. There is no report of any virus being contracted by anyone who was not on that ship.

The advice remains that human-to-human transmission, although it has obviously occurred, is still very rare and requires very close contact with an infected person, but obviously our agencies, including the CDC, are monitoring that advice as it develops from this outbreak.

I can advise that the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade has secured a flight and a crew to repatriate those six passengers, and has also secured all of the necessary approvals and clearances for that flight. That flight will be landing in the Netherlands in a little less than 90 minutes. It will take off from the Netherlands about 90 minutes after that. It will be landing at RAAF Bass Pearce, north-east of Perth, some time tomorrow. As I said, all six passengers are being monitored very closely. They all remain symptom free. They have all just been tested and that test proved negative for hantavirus.

There will be very strict conditions for the entire flight, for the landing and for the time they spend in quarantine. Those conditions have been developed by the CDC and have been endorsed recently by the chief health officers of the Australian Health Protection Committee, which is the committee of all of the jurisdictions and chaired by our Chief Medical Officer.

All of the passengers and all crew will be in full PPE for the entire duration of the flight, including when they land at Pearce. They will then be transported immediately to the Centre for National Resilience, the quarantine centre at Bullsbrook, which is effectively next door to the RAAF base. Staff from the National Critical Care and Trauma Response Centre have already been deployed to that centre, ready to receive those passengers. They will be quarantined there for three weeks at least. That is the strongest quarantine response to this outbreak in the world that I can find, because we are determined to do everything to keep Australians safe and healthy.