Zed Seselja (ACT, Liberal Party, Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Molan for the question. Australia is proud to be offering full COVID-19 vaccine coverage for the Pacific and Timor-Leste in close partnership with New Zealand, the United States and France. We are committing $523.2 million over three years to a COVID-19 vaccine access health initiative for the Pacific and South-East Asia. This funding complements the $80 million we previously committed to the multilateral Covax Facility Advance Market Commitment for developing countries. In South-East Asia we will work with partners, like the World Bank, to meet the needs of much larger populations in our region.

This initiative will provide safe and effective COVID-19 vaccines and support health security in our region. Safety and effectiveness are critically important. We will only support the rolling out of vaccines to our neighbours once the vaccines have been approved by a stringent regulatory authority and countries are adequately prepared to administer the right vaccines for their local conditions. Senator Payne and I are in regular contact with our counterparts in the Pacific and South-East Asia to underline our commitment and to progress the next steps of our cooperation on vaccine access and rollouts in their nations. We expect that vaccines procured by the Covax Facility AMC will be the first available to countries in our region. Gavi and the WHO's best estimate is the AMC will begin to supply before the end of March 2021.

Finally, I'd like to recognise that our Pacific partners have handled this situation extremely well so far. This is a testament to the incredible leadership across our region. Our focus is on trying to save lives and livelihoods. Access to WHO-approved COVID-19 vaccines will help economies reopen and ensure stability. Our regional vaccine initiative will enable the purchase of vaccines by our neighbouring countries and will provide them with the necessary technical support to prepare for vaccine introduction. (Time expired)