PRIME MINISTER:
Well, thanks for being here. As you know the Ebola epidemic has been ravaging West Africa for many months now; almost 5,000 have died, over 10,000 have become sick. So, this is a very serious health crisis – a very, very serious health crisis. As you also know Australia has been steadily ramping up its response. Yes, our first priority is always help at home, followed by help in the region but we are determined to be good citizens globally as well as regionally so we have been ramping up our response. We made an initial contribution of $1 million, followed by $7 million, followed by $10 million and today I announce an additional $24 million which will further ramp up our response in West Africa.
As you also know, we have been in consultation with our friends and partners for some time. We have been particularly concerned that any Australian personnel going to West Africa should be able to access appropriate treatment and evacuation procedures. In the last few days we have had assurances from the United Kingdom that they would treat any Australian who is working in the Ebola-impacted parts of West Africa as though he or she were a citizen of the United Kingdom.
So, today's announcement that we will commit up to $20 million to staff an Ebola treatment centre, a 100-bed Ebola treatment centre in Sierra Leone. This will be a centre that's being built by the United Kingdom but it will be staffed by Australia through a medical provider, Aspen, an Australian provider. Most of the staff will be locally engaged. There will be some international staff and some of those are likely to include Australian paid volunteers. We are also committing some $2 million to RedR and this will be for Australian logistician volunteers to work with UN agencies such as the World Health Organization to provide logistic support for the Ebola teams in West Africa. Most of those staff will not actually be based in country. There will be a further $2 million to enhance the regional preparedness; we will be using that money to ensure that health staff in countries such as Timor-Leste and PNG receive the appropriate training to deal with any Ebola cases there.
My anticipation is that Aspen will have some staff on the ground in Sierra Leone within days. My hope is that this treatment centre will be operational by the end of the month, although we will, to some extent, be dependent on our United Kingdom partners who are actually building the centre that Australia will ensure is staffed through Aspen.
We are also ramping up our domestic preparedness because I stress the last thing anyone would want to do is to have personnel going to Africa, coming back to Australia and acting as carriers for this horrible disease.
I think the Australian people expect our priorities to be prevention at home, preparedness in the region, and work in the wider world and that's what we are doing as part of our campaign, to be the very best possible international citizen.
I am now going to ask Health Minister Peter Dutton to add to these remarks and perhaps to dwell on our domestic preparedness.
HEALTH MINISTER:
PM, thank you very much. Can I just give you an update by way of the numbers first – as at 31 October there were 13,500 clinical cases, almost 5,000 deaths, so a fatality rate of 36 per cent, which has come back from where it was up around 49 per cent. Importantly, as at 31 October, the WHO had reported 523 health workers had become infected with Ebola in West Africa, of whom 269 people had died. So, a fatality rate of just over 50 per cent in relation to health workers. I think it underscores the prudence of the approach that the Government's taken, the fact that we do want to protect Australian healthcare workers that may be in the field in West Africa and to make sure that we have the appropriate measures in place for when they return home.
I also want to advise you today that we have stepped up our response at borders, of people coming into our country from affected nations. People on inbound flights into our country from West Africa but passengers otherwise will notice that there is additional information that they will need to provide to immigration and border protection authorities. There will be further announcements and information available at airports. There will be the capacity to take temperatures and to have those healthcare workers providing that support to the human quarantine officers on the ground.
I also want to let you know that there is obviously, developing every day, a greater sophistication around the way in which we can provide a domestic response at our hospitals, around the country. The Chief Medical Officer continues to be in daily contact with the chief health officers from the states and territories to make sure that we have the best possible response if there is a presentation to one of those hospitals.
The risk to Australia remains very low and Ebola is not a disease, not a virus similar to that which Australians might be familiar with in terms of a virus like the flu. Ebola needs transfer of bodily fluids to be spread from one human being to the next. It's not a flu scenario where the airborne particles are picked up and there is a very easy contraction between patients. That is not the case with Ebola. I think the steps that we have put in place today are prudent both domestically, also in relation to our regional response and in relation to our humanitarian efforts in West Africa as well.
PRIME MINISTER:
Ok, are there any questions?
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, why has it taken so long to, I guess, send people over there – Australians over there.
PRIME MINISTER:
Well, we are not sending people over. We are ensuring that, thanks to Australia, there is a 100-bed treatment centre that's staffed and run in Sierra Leone. It's a British-built centre, but we'll be ensuring that it's staffed and run. Aspen, an Australian health provider will be doing it. We anticipate that there will be about 240 staff required to do the job. Most of them will be locally engaged. Some will be international and it's quite possible, even likely, that some will be Australian. But Aspen will be looking after, with the assurance of the UK Government, Aspen will be looking after any treatment or evacuation that might be required for international staff working in this treatment centre.
I stress, this is a health emergency. It's not a military emergency, for instance, which is why we have contracted a private health provider to do this, which is in keeping with our response to other overseas health emergencies such as cholera in our region. It's entirely in keeping with those sorts of precedents.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, engaging Aspen or a third party in this, was that part of the recommendations from the Chief Medical Officer?
PRIME MINISTER:
We have been talking to our partners and friends, and what we have been talking with them about is how we can most usefully contribute to an international effort, and certainly ensuring that a treatment centre in Sierra Leone – a 100-bed treatment centre in Sierra Leone – is run and staffed, has been entirely in keeping with the kinds of requests we have had from our friends and partners.
QUESTION:
Do you think it's only a matter of time before we have the first confirmed case of Ebola in Australia?
PRIME MINISTER:
You can never rule anything out because, as Minister Dutton indicated, there have now been well over 10,000 cases in West Africa, and there are some hundreds of people who, since this outbreak got a roll-on, have come to Australia who have been in affected areas.
Now, we have had screening procedures in place for some months now, as Minister Dutton has just indicated we are increasing and intensifying the screening procedures that we have got at our airports. So, I think the likelihood of someone coming in to Australia with the disease remains relatively low. I think the chances of an outbreak in Australia is much lower still but the assurance I give to the Australian people is that we will do everything we can to keep Ebola out, but if it gets here, we are better placed than just about any other country to deal with it.
QUESTION:
Prime Minister, why is there a decision to engage a private firm? Is that to limit…
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QUESTION:
And given that there is a third party involved in this instance, do we know how many volunteers or Australian personnel will be sent over there?
PRIME MINISTER:
You don't send volunteers. Volunteers go. So, it will be up to Aspen to decide who should staff the centre. It's an Australian company. It's going to be funded to do this by Australia. It's likely that there will be some volunteers involved. They will, of course, be paid. They will be volunteering to do the job, but while they are doing the job they'll be paid. Whether it's a very small number or a somewhat larger number, that's a matter for Aspen. One of the important things, though, is that Aspen will be required to ensure that any Australians who are involved in treating the Ebola victims in West Africa do serve a quarantine period in country before coming back to Australia.
QUESTION:
Is the contract with Aspen open-ended or is the funding for a certain period?
PRIME MINISTER:
This funding will cover the operation of the 100-bed treatment centre until the middle of next year.
QUESTION:
How many Australians do we have over there that have travelled to Africa of their own accord?
PRIME MINISTER:
My understanding is that it's a relative handful, a couple of dozen at most. Do you have a better understanding than that, Peter?
HEALTH MINISTER:
We don't have an exact figure because we don't coordinate the volunteers that might go across through Red Cross or MSF for argument’s sake. The estimates are, as the Prime Minister says, somewhere around two dozen – 20 to 30, of that order. So, that's the best indication that we have.
QUESTION:
There’s been some criticism of the visa ban that you put on travellers from Ebola affected countries. People say it's uncharitable. How do you respond to that? Is it really necessary and would you consider lifting it?
PRIME MINISTER:
The first priority of the Australian Government is the protection of Australia. That's the first priority of the Australian Government. And I would also have thought that it is standard, public health prudence to try to ensure that when a very serious outbreak of disease has taken place, that that outbreak is contained. And by far the smartest way of containing the outbreak is to limit movement of people in and out of the affected area.
QUESTION:
Do you expect Ebola to be discussed at the G20 summit and its potential impact on the economy?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't think at this stage we want to overestimate the impact of Ebola on the global economy. It's not entirely negligible, but nevertheless none of the three seriously affected countries are major economies. They’re not major trading nations; they’re not countries of large GDP. Obviously, this is a terrible disaster for all three of them and because it's such a disaster for all three of them, Australia is coming to help, to the tune of $42 million so far and with the establishment of the running of this 100-bed treatment centre in Sierra Leone. So, I don't want to minimise the seriousness of the outbreak, but I also want to keep it in perspective as well. This is a public health emergency, it's not a security emergency, it's certainly not an economic emergency. If the Ebola issue is raised at the G20, obviously it would be discussed. But my very, very strong concern is to try to keep the G20 as an economic forum, not as a security forum, not as a public health forum. That's what I want it to be: an economic forum. It is the world's principle economic forum. There are other forums to talk about environmental issues, there are other forums to talk about security issues and there are other forums to talk about health issues.
QUESTION:
Just on Ebola, did the Chief Medical Officer recommend that Australia send teams over to help with this crisis?
PRIME MINISTER:
I don't recall receiving any such advice from the Chief Medical Officer. I have been in any number of National Security Committee meetings now with the Chief Medical Officer. I have been part of discussions on at least half a dozen occasions now with the Chief Medical Officer. And I certainly don't recall any such advice from the Chief Medical Officer. We’ve discussed a whole range of things in National Security Committee meetings as you’d expect, but I certainly have no recollection of any advice from the Chief Medical Officer to that effect. Peter?
HEALTH MINISTER:
The only thing that I add is obviously the Chief Medical Officer's concentration, whilst he’s a part of the WHO committee that’s helping to respond to the crisis in West Africa, his concentration really has been on our domestic response. As you’d expect, he is in, as I said before, daily communication with the chief health officers from the states and territories. They have a phone hook-up each week. They go through the domestic preparedness and response and obviously to make sure people are trained adequately, to make sure that there are exercises undertaken to lift the standard of training, to make sure that we have adequate supplies of the personal protective equipment. That's been the concentration of Professor Baggoley’s efforts and he obviously provided advice to us around the situation in West Africa. But also the regional response that would be required from our Government if we did have a spread in a country like PNG. So that's been the nature of the advice.
QUESTION:
On another issue, the Dutch Prime Minister is arriving tomorrow. I just want to know what's on the agenda tomorrow and what do you make of his decision to fly with Malaysia Airlines?
PRIME MINISTER:
It's really up to the Dutch government and the Prime Minister to decide which airline they wish to patronise. I think there is a nice symbolism about using Malaysia Airlines, given that Malaysia Airlines has a very good record and the two incidents involving Malaysia Airlines this year certainly shouldn't be taken as a reflection on the professionalism or the safety of that particular airline. I'm looking forward to seeing Mark Rutte. I’ve become quite a good friend of Mark Rutte over the last few months. Obviously, we’ve worked very closely together in responding effectively to the MH17 atrocity. I guess the number one item in our discussions is the progress of the investigation, the progress of identification and repatriation, and our shared determination to ensure that this atrocity is fully investigated and that if the perpetrators can reasonably be identified, they are brought to swift and exemplary justice.
[ends]