Alex Hawke (Mitchell, Liberal Party, Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

I welcome the opportunity to update the House on this expenditure and on the extensive efforts of the Morrison government responding to COVID-19 in our region, working with our Pacific family and our Indo-Pacific neighbours to achieve that shared recovery.

The 2020-21 budget provides $4 billion in official development assistance this year, with our development efforts focused on supporting a resilient, stable and prosperous Indo-Pacific. I'm proud that this includes $1.44 billion of ODA to be spent in the Pacific, which is a record amount for an Australian government. There is also $1 billion for South-East Asia. This is recognising our commitment to these two important regions.

The pandemic has had a serious economic impact on our region, and that's why the government has announced our supplementary two-year, $304.7 million COVID-19 recovery package, which will deliver critical temporary targeted economic and fiscal support to our Pacific partners and Timor Leste. This will help them maintain critical services in the region and protect the vulnerable people within these countries that are suffering under the pandemic.

We've pivoted, in this time, our development partnerships; we've redirected our redevelopment efforts to respond to the impacts of the pandemic on our regional partners, with a focus on maintaining health security, stability and stimulating economic recovery and activity. As part of our Partnerships for Recovery strategy, Minister Payne and I, in close consultation with our regional partners, released 27 country-specific COVID-19 development response plans. These provide a blueprint for support at country, regional and global levels. And it goes beyond ODA, drawing on all of the policy tools, including development, diplomatic, trade, immigration and security cooperation, for the first time capturing all of the whole-of-government effort.

There's no better example of the work we are doing in this region than our Pacific labour mobility programs. The government moved quickly to enable Pacific workers who were here in Australia when the pandemic struck to stay here and keep working. They were able to be redeployed and we ensured they moved successfully around Australia. I'm glad that during that time we didn't have a single case of COVID amongst that cohort, a very important benchmark. We've now recommenced recruitment under the Seasonal Worker Program and the Pacific Labour Scheme to keep vital remittances flowing to the Pacific while also filling critical workforce gaps in rural and regional Australia.

Since the onset of the pandemic, the Prime Minister, Minister Payne and I have been speaking regularly with our regional colleagues about how Australia can best contribute to the regional response as the impacts emerge. Australia has committed to procuring and delivering COVID-19 vaccines for the Pacific, Timor-Leste and South-East Asia. We've committed an additional $500 million, on top of the $23.2 million committed in the budget. That's $500 million for vaccinations in the Pacific and South-East Asia. This builds on the additional commitment of $80 million to Gavi COVAX Advanced Market Commitment, which will support access for eligible countries. This important commitment by Australia to ensure that our region receives vaccinations has been well received by our partners in the region.

We've reshaped our development program substantially, and Australia's immediate response included the $280 million Indo-Pacific Response and Recovery Package, which we announced in May—we moved fast to adapt to the situation—and between March and June we reworked about 400 of around 1,000 investments worth over $840 million to help regional partners manage immediate challenges posed by the pandemic. We've retained and mobilised over 100 critical aid and humanitarian advisers in our region, and our government has responded to more than 120 Pacific bilateral requests for assistance, delivering over 35 tonnes of humanitarian supplies, PPE, medical equipment and, importantly, 54,000 GeneXpert testing cartridges for COVID-19 to 13 Pacific Island countries and Timor-Leste.

We've deployed AUSMAT teams, we've ensured essential medical, food and testing supplies, and we've certainly provided support through the traditional tropical cyclone season as well—Tropical Cyclone Harold, notably, devastated Vanuatu, Fiji and Tonga. Australian support has enabled the government of Timor-Leste to establish independent testing capability. Increasingly we're integrating our climate change and disaster resilience into our development programs. Our COVID-19 response efforts pledged $500 million over five years to help Pacific nations invest in renewable energy and build climate and disaster resilience. How our region emerges from this crisis will influence our economic and strategic circumstances for decades to come. At this crucial time we're standing together as close and valued partners. We're here for the Pacific and Timor-Leste. We're going to get through this as a family. Australia will support our neighbours all the way.

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