Mark Butler (Hindmarsh, Australian Labor Party, Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the House of Representatives) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question, again, is to the Minister for Health. I refer to reports that Pfizer approached the government 12 months ago offering Australia the opportunity to be among the first nations in the world to have access to the Pfizer vaccine. Is that right? Why did the government fail to secure that early agreement for Pfizer vaccines when it had the chance?

Greg Hunt (Flinders, Liberal Party, Minister for Health and Aged Care) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The government commenced negotiations with Pfizer the first time Pfizer were willing to do that, after the end of June, when Pfizer lifted the ban on having negotiations. We had had informal discussions, because we had sought to commence them on the earliest possible date. Pfizer's advice to us was that they were not able, on the basis of the international rules, to commence negotiations. When that was lifted, we began those discussions in July. We followed the advice of ATAGI and we followed, in particular, the advice of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Group. We secured the earliest possible availability of doses on all the advice that I have. The advice of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Group was to secure an initial 10 million doses. There was no earlier available volume, to the best of my advice and knowledge. That remains absolutely clear and that's been the position throughout.

We have followed that advice and secured 195 million doses of vaccine across five different platforms. What we have are 53.8 million AstraZeneca, which has provided the backbone of what occurred in Australia with over 500 million AstraZeneca doses delivered worldwide. It has, in fact, been the backbone of the UK program, to which the opposition refers from time to time. In addition to that, we have 50 million Novavax. We have 40 million Pfizer, all of which are on the latest advice that I have, due to be delivered in the course of this year. We have 10 million Moderna due to be delivered this year and 15 million next year and, in addition to that, access to 25½ million COVAXX.

One of the things that has been very important as we look at this is we recognise that the decision taken today is a cautious one. It compares with the position in the UK, where 40 and above can access AstraZeneca; in South Korea, 30 and above; in Germany, 18 and above, but they made it based on Australian circumstances. We followed that medical advice, as we have done scrupulously with the work of the Scientific and Technical Advisory Group, led by Professor Murphy, as to which vaccines should be purchased and on what basis. Every vaccine that we have purchased we have secured at the earliest possible time.