Joe Ludwig (Queensland, Australian Labor Party, Manager of Government Business in the Senate) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

With regard to a second matter that Senator Bob Brown asked yesterday—I will call it the swine flu question—I seek leave to incorporate the answer in Hansard.

Leave granted.

The answer read as follows—

At this stage, there are no detected cases of swine flu in Indonesia, East Timor or PNG.

AusAID has fast-tracked a payment of $3 million to the World Health Organization (WHO) to build on an existing program for pandemic preparedness that strengthens national systems in the Asia-Pacific region to respond to pandemic outbreaks.

These funds will enable WHO to undertake a coordinated response to countries’ requests for assistance according to clear health criteria and WHO assessed priorities.

To date, the WHO has despatched more than 10,000 courses of Tamiflu to PNG.

AusAID has also provided PNG with 100 doses of Tamiflu with an offer to provide more if required.

Should East Timor, Indonesia or PNG have requests for further assistance in the future, they will be able to be assessed against the WHO criteria.

AusAID have also provided $561,000 to improve health infrastructure in PNG in 2008/09, as part of the Torres Strait Island treaty agreement.

In the 2009-10 Budget, the Government has also committed $13.8 million to implement specific measures in the Torres Strait to address the risk of communicable diseases in the Torres Strait treaty zone.