Linda Reynolds (WA, Liberal Party, Minister for Defence) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you very much, Senator Scarr, for that question. I am very proud that this government is committed to supporting all our friends and security partners with their responses to COVID-19. Our ADF and also our Defence personnel have been working side by side with their Pacific counterparts as we address this global pandemic together.

I've pivoted and stepped up our defence cooperation programs across the region to meet the changing security needs of our partners. I remain in very close contact with my international counterparts to coordinate our own responses to COVID-19 and also to deal with the geostrategic challenges that this pandemic is only serving to intensify. Defence has rolled out very successful online training packages to prepare our own ADF personnel to conduct medical support tasks. We've already pivoted and provided this training package to 19 friends and neighbours, and it's been translated already into Bahasa and into Vietnamese, with some more to follow.

In the Pacific, I redirected $18 million worth of Defence funding to address immediate health, economic and security impact of COVID-19 in the region. We're leveraging an existing contract for aerial surveillance under the Pacific Security Maritime Program to support the movements of supplies through the Pacific and also to Timor Leste in the humanitarian corridor, so ably led by our foreign minister. In Papua New Guinea we have 40 ADF members working alongside their PNG counterparts, providing technical advice, specialist equipment and also training.

Our Defence advisers also across the region are supporting a range of tasks, including strategic, maritime and airlift, to support the PNG Defence Force operations and the refurbishment of critical infrastructure and capabilities. We all, again, should be very proud of our ADF and their support to our region.