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

ELJA (—) (): Thank you, and I can. Our region's health, prosperity and security is absolutely vital to Australia's and we have been working closely with our partners across the Pacific to address our shared challenges.

In response to the pandemic, Australia is investing more than $1 billion above and beyond our ongoing development support in our region. Despite some of the messages from those opposite, particularly the Greens, we have already shared over 9.2 million doses across the Indo-Pacific as part of our commitment to deliver 60 million doses to our neighbours by the end of 2022. In addition, Australia is investing $130 million in the COVAX Facility, which has distributed over 100 million doses to South-East Asia and the Pacific, and more than 400 million doses globally. Vaccination means more than just doses and Australia has allocated $623 million to get vaccine doses in arms, including vaccine procurement, distribution, administration, training and planning.

Beyond the health impacts, this pandemic has also posed serious economic challenges across our region. In 2020-21, Australia provided $361 million in direct financing to support economic growth and social protection in our region. This investment has helped governments in our region to expand social protection schemes to support more than 150 million people. Australia is also extending loans worth more than $2 billion to Indonesia and PNG to help address their economic needs. That's because the economic resilience of these two great democracies is absolutely vital to Australia and to the region.

Throughout the pandemic Australia has continued to invest in quality infrastructure through a lending pipeline of more than $1 billion. Already, we have finalised deals to finance renewable energy in the Solomon Islands, an undersea telecommunications cable in Palau and upgrades and maintenance at Fiji's airports. And, finally: through our Pacific Australia Labour Mobility scheme, almost 19,000 workers from the Pacific and Timor-Leste are in Australia, helping us to meet critical workforce shortages. (Time expired)