Dan Tehan helps secure 1m COVID-19 AstraZeneca vaccine doses for PNG

AstraZeneca can divert one million of Australia’s vaccine doses directly to Papua New Guinea without needing to apply to the EU for permission.

Trade Minister Dan Tehan. Picture: Nicole Cleary

British pharmaceutical giant ­AstraZeneca can divert one million of Australia’s vaccine doses directly to Papua New Guinea without needing to apply to the EU for permission, after successful personal approaches by Trade Minister Dan Tehan.

In a feisty riposte to his British counterpart Liz Truss, who this week claimed Mr Tehan was inexperienced and would be subjected to an uncomfortable chair during Australia-UK free trade agreement talks, Mr Tehan said he had faced tougher battles ­playing Australian rules football for Bonnie Doon, having been knocked out when he was in his early 20s.

He also said Ms Truss had since apologised to him.

“I’ve been knocked out playing Australian rules, so the idea that I’d be intimidated by an uncomfortable chair I found rather quaint,’’ he said, before joking: “I did try to avoid getting knocked out too many times — it might have had a long-term impact that led me to go into politics.’’

Mr Tehan met with the EU trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis this week in Brussels, where the two agreed there was nothing preventing AstraZeneca from sending the vaccines to Papua New Guinea, and that the EU export mechanism — which has stopped vaccine supplies from reaching Australia — would not apply in this case.

The rest of the Australia’s ­AstraZeneca supply, which is about 2.1 million doses, due from Europe, will only be released after European contracts have been filled. That could push the timeline for Australia’s delivery ­beyond 12 months.

“We have very clear assurances that AstraZeneca does not have to apply through the EU export transparency regime to send those one million doses to Papua New Guinea,’’ Mr Tehan said on Thursday. “So there is nothing that is preventing them from sending those one million doses, from Europe to PNG and the ball is clearly in AstraZeneca’s court.’’

He said Foreign Minister Marise Payne and Health Minister Greg Hunter were talking with AstraZeneca about securing the PNG vaccines as soon as possible.

Mr Tehan would not be drawn on what will happen to the balance of Australia’s contractual supply from AstraZeneca, which continues to be subject to the EU’s insistence that its citizens have priority for the vaccines.

When asked if Australia was considering donating the supply to another Covax country in the region so that it could immediately benefit, Mr Tehan said: “All of those decisions and discussions would be made in Canberra.”

Mr Tehan said he had also met with officials at the World Trade Organisation in Geneva to discuss ways to ensure the free flow of raw materials that go into the vaccines and the ingredients that make up the vials.

He said the world risked restrictions being put in place by any one country that could flow on and stop the production of ­vaccines across the globe.

“It’s incredibly important that we look at approaches around voluntary licensing, ensuring you have the free flow of the ­materials that go into vaccines, into manufacturing them, into storing them, and then we can allow the investment flows that are needed to make sure we boosting and lifting production and not restricting supplies,’’ he said.