Vince Connelly (Stirling, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise today to make some commentary about the very dire situation that PNG finds itself in—our great neighbour and friend to the north—and to talk a bit about the importance of Australia's support to PNG in helping our friends. Going through the Australian Defence Force academy and then the royal military college, there were a number of Papua New Guinean cadets who also went through at the same time, so I got to know a bit about how our friends and neighbours operate. On military deployments I also got to work with our Papua New Guinean friends. I note the member for Solomon here in the chamber today has also operated in our northern region and with our island neighbours.

It was wonderful to deploy, along with the Papua New Guineans, for example, up to Solomon Islands and see some of the great work they do in helping their neighbours. We're here to do the very same. There's a term called Wontok, which means 'people who are of the one family'. I came across this term in serving with our Pacific Island neighbours, and I think it's absolutely applicable. That's what we're doing here: we're acting like good Wontok and helping our neighbour in a time of need.

As Australia emerges through this recovery phase of the pandemic, not forgetting that it's still a risk that's very much alive, it is worth reflecting that we are in a very good position as a country. Thankfully, the Morrison government made very important, very early decisions. Indeed, we were right ahead of the pack in declaring this a pandemic—two weeks ahead of the World Health Organization. We also shut our borders, initially to China and then to other international countries progressively, to limit the influx of the virus into Australia. We have, unfortunately, still suffered both in terms of health and economics, but none would argue that Australia is in an enviable position globally. So this does put us in a position where, thankfully, we can get on and help others.

We are working with PNG, where there are some really worrying statistics. About half of the total COVID cases in PNG have been diagnosed just in the last few weeks, with higher numbers of positive cases at the Ok Tedi Mine and Port Moresby and amongst frontline healthcare workers. The capacity for testing in PNG is also very far less than what that capacity is here in Australia. To echo the words of our Prime Minister and other ministers, Australia has a deep and close relationship with Papua New Guinea, and it's important that we do help them get this pandemic under control.

Some of the ways we are doing that is the Australian government is working with the Queensland government to provide vaccinations in the Torres Strait. We're providing protective personal equipment to PNG, including one million surgical masks; 200,000 P295 respiratory masks; 100,000 gowns, pairs of gloves and bottles of sanitiser; 20,000 face shields; and 200 non-invasive ventilators. We're also sending an AUSMAT health specialist team to Port Moresby to assist with health emergency management, preparations, vaccine rollouts and other assistance we may identify. Significantly we're also providing 8,000 doses of our domestic vaccine stock to deliver to nurses and other frontline health staff.

Australia has already made an $80 billion contribution to the COVAX facility, which will see 588,000 vaccines delivered to PNG by June. However, based on the numbers that we're seeing out of PNG in terms of infections, we can't afford to wait that long. So we are speaking with AstraZeneca and the EU about accessing one million doses which have previously been purchased by Australia to gift to PNG. I'm sure that that message is being delivered loud and clear—that these vaccines are not for Australia but for PNG during their terrible time of great difficulty.

It's important also to note that last week we committed to working in further detail with our Quad partners—Japan, the US and India—on supporting vaccine rollouts across the Indo-Pacific. As a developed nation, as a caring nation, as a great friend of Papua New Guinea, it is right and it is critical that we continue this support to Papua New Guinea and that we look after our wantok as we always do.

Question agreed to.

Federation Chamber adjourned at 12:23