Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for International Development and the Pacific, Senator Fierravanti-Wells. Can the minister advise the Senate on how the Turnbull government is delivering on its commitments in helping to keep Australians safe through the Indo-Pacific Health Security Initiative?

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

In the 12 months to December last year, there were 10 million movements out of Australia. Two million Australians visited the Pacific island countries and Oceania and another 3.1 million Australians visited South-East Asian countries. Whilst the Indo-Pacific region has some of the most stunning and beautiful tourist destinations in the world, they also have, unfortunately, high rates of communicable diseases—for example, malaria, dengue fever, tuberculosis—which have debilitating impacts on individuals and their communities. Whilst Australians travelling abroad are hoping to have an enjoyable holiday, some of them do, regrettably, pick up some of these diseases, which are preventable. What's worse, they then bring them home, where they are a significant burden on our health system. There is also the potential for interaction with other people in Australia. Therefore, it's important that we do spend taxpayers' money through our overseas development assistance to help them.

At the last federal election we committed $100 million over five years to establish a regional health security partnership fund. Last year, we not only met this figure but exceeded it by an additional $200 million. This represents the largest health and medical research commitment that we have ever made under Australia's Official Development Assistance. By trebling our commitment, we recognise that substantial funding, expertise and vision are required to manage some of the major health threats to our region. This initiative is being led by the new Indo-Pacific Centre for Health Security, which will support efforts to avoid and contain infectious disease threats in our region.

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Duniam, a supplementary question.

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can the minister explain how the government's health security focus is targeting tuberculosis?

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Today, I joined other parliamentary colleagues at the World Tuberculosis Day parliamentary breakfast, where it was highlighted very starkly that, despite being a curable disease, tuberculosis is the world's leading infectious killer. Someone dies from TB every 18 seconds. We are surrounded by countries that have TB. Twelve of the world's 30 highest TB-burden countries are located in our region and account for nearly half of all cases of drug-resistant TB and TB deaths worldwide. Papua New Guinea, which is four kilometres to our north, has a major TB problem and, in particular, a drug-resistant TB problem. That not only puts PNG at risk; it also puts Australians at risk. (Time expired)

Scott Ryan (President) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Senator Duniam, a final supplementary question.

Jonathon Duniam (Tasmania, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Can the minister outline to the Senate the importance of investing in health security in our region?

Concetta Fierravanti-Wells (NSW, Liberal Party, Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

What we are doing is keeping Australians safe and healthy. The World Health Organization has told us it is not a case of 'if' but 'when' there will be another major pandemic, when that pandemic will strike. Our health security is linked inextricably to the health security of our Indo-Pacific neighbours. In an interconnected world, diseases such as Ebola, Middle East respiratory syndrome, Zika and tuberculosis do not respect our borders. A major epidemic could potentially devastate communities; result in loss of life; disrupt tourism, trade, investment and people movement; and set back our region's economic growth and development considerably. Therefore, it's important that our investments are directly targeted towards mitigating this risk.