Promoting cooperation on regional health security

Public health is a linchpin of national security in general. It underpins our wellbeing as individuals and our strength as societies. When it collapses, so too do whole economies. Even military readiness can suffer in a pandemic.

As Covid has made clear, however, public health is hard to preserve in national siloes. Transnational threats require international solutions. It is therefore crucial that Australia works with our partners to make our collective health security a core objective of regional cooperation.

We will do so in the following ways:

Boost support for regional vaccination. Under-vaccination in developing countries remains a live threat to global health. Building on the existing Partnerships for Recovery program, Australia will therefore aim to significantly scale and speed up our donations of Covid vaccines across Southeast Asia and the Pacific. To deliver on this commitment, we will resume and ramp up local production of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine, which is particularly suited to our neighbours' need in not requiring frozen storage.

Conduct region-wide pandemic drills. To ensure the region is prepared to respond effectively to the next pandemic, Australia will propose and coordinate a series of pandemic drills involving national governments across the Indo-Pacific. Practising our collective responses to simulated health crises will help test and improve our systems, decision-making, and communication channels.

Improve regional data-sharing and coordination. To ensure that regional health intelligence is shared, and crisis responses coordinated, Australia will work to see its planned CDC become effectively enmeshed as a partner and contributor in the regional health architecture. We will also seek to enhance the working relationships and communication channels between Australia and our neighbours' national health authorities.

Expand the opportunities for health policy dialogue. Working with and through existing regional mechanisms, such as ASEAN and the Pacific Islands Forum, Australia will seek to elevate the regional health policy conversation to a similar level of importance as strategic and economic dialogue. Formalising high-level health dialogues would allow Australia and its partners to share knowledge, experience, and strategies in relation to pressing health issues at the national level, such as air pollution, regulating tobacco, and infant mortality.

Advocate global reform on drug patent regimes. Tragically, one of the greatest threats to inclusive health security is manmade: the restrictive patent laws that prevent developing countries from producing vaccines and medicines at low or no cost. The commercial regime we have instead results in drug prices so high that millions of people, including in our region, die from the unaffordability of treatment. While it is beyond Australia's power to change these legal regimes unilaterally, we will push vigorously for the loosening of patent restrictions in international forums and bilateral dialogues.

Elevate sanitation and health infrastructure as development cooperation priorities. Poor sanitation makes water- and insect-borne diseases prevalent across the region. At the same time, lacking health infrastructure acts as a widespread barrier to effective or accessible treatment. Together, these factors result in millions of preventable deaths each year—from cholera, typhoid, malaria, and others. In light of this, Australia will increase the share of aid we direct towards improving sanitation and health infrastructure in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, particularly in rural areas.

Reaffirm our commitment to the One Health principles. The Australian government will collaborate intimately with the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) on strengthening regional food and nutrition security. We will also work seek to work with the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) on improving animal husbandry protocols and enhancing the resilience of the veterinary sectors.

Build up and leverage Australia's national medical stockpile. As the outbreak of Covid exposed, many countries suffered greatly due to a lack of medical supplies, such as oxygen and ventilators. Meanwhile, other countries were well equipped to meet national needs, but lacked the surpluses needed to make up their neighbours' shortfalls. The case speaks to the importance of ensuring our medical stockpile achieves more than self-reliance. In the interest of regional health security, it must be sufficient to meet our neighbours' needs too. This is important, in one sense, as an act of solidarity. Yet it is equally in our long-term self-interest: if we build up surpluses that can be promptly and generously donated when needed, we will better equip our partners to contain local threats before they metastasise as global crises.

Increase medical study opportunities in Australia. To help build up regional health capability at the human level, Australia will initiate a scholarship program that allows eligible Southeast Asian and Pacific students to undertake fee-free medical degrees at Australian universities. The program will offer a clear internship and fellowship training pathway after graduation, for students to continue speciality pursuits. And we will aim eventually to expand the scholarship on a reciprocal basis, so that Australian students can undertake medical training or placements overseas. Doing so would enrich our future health leaders' perspectives of global health inequity.