G7: Scott Morrison to back global pandemic warning system, vaccine certificates amid Covid origin probe call

Scott Morrison will support WHO reform and other measures, declaring more ‘work’ needs to be done to determine Covid-19’s origins.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison prepares his speech on the plane ahead of the G7 Summit in Cornwall. Picture: Adam Taylor/PMO

Scott Morrison will support a global early warning system at the onset of pandemics and reform of the World Health Organisation in his first major address to the G7 summit in Cornwall.

The Prime Minister on Saturday also declared more “work” needed to be done to determine the origins of the Covid-19 pandemic, and whether it had natural origins or may have leaked from a lab.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison lands in the UK. Picture: Adam Taylor/PMO

Mr Morrison, who will attend a G7 leaders’ summit session to discuss the pandemic, said “it’s very important that we understand the origins and there has already been discussion around our preparedness for any future pandemic that the world can move quickly on issues like vaccines”.

“But equally, it’s important that we have an early warning system, that we have a way of being able to alert the world to when these types of viruses originate so we can move quickly. Australia moved quickly and we shut our borders,” Mr Morrison said.

“Having that opportunity to be able to identify these pandemics at their very early onset and to be able to take very quick action, relying on very good and reliable information. This is the key lesson out of this pandemic.”

Mr Morrison said the purpose of the Covid-19 origins inquiries had nothing to do with “politics or frankly blame”.

“It’s about understanding it so we all on a future occasion can move quickly and can avoid on a future occasion the absolute carnage that we’ve seen from this pandemic,” he said.

“What I’m simply saying is the process we called for is not yet done, it is recommending further work. And recommending that there be further powers for the WHO to be able to identify these things early, and ensure that information is passed on in a timely way.”

Mr Morrison will hold a series of bilateral meetings including his first in-person talks with US President Joe Biden.

Mr Morrison was expected to tell G7 leaders Australia’s pursuit of a suppression strategy had supported the nation’s health response and economic recovery.

He will also raise vaccine certificates with G7 leaders and the need for an integrated system as nations look to reopen international borders. Following a meeting between Mr Morrison and Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on Thursday, the pair outlined a digital vaccine framework to help facilitate a travel bubble between Australia and Singapore.

Mr Morrison will support the independent Covid-19 review into the origins of the pandemic and highlight Australia’s role in the vaccination rollout in the Indo-Pacific region, the country’s backing of the COVAX facility and its 20 million vaccine pledge backing Boris Johnson’s G7 vaccine dose sharing initiative.

Mr Morrison, who was due to take-part in a G7-plus leaders’ family photo early Sunday morning, would also endorse the G7’s collective effort to bolster defences on international health security risks and reform agenda for the World Health Organisation.

G7 leaders on Saturday will sign-up to the Carbis Bay Declaration on Health, with Britain pledging to establish a new centre to develop vaccines to prevent zoonotic diseases spreading from animals to humans. G7 countries will make a major statement on medical supply chains, focused on personal protective equipment and vaccines.

The G7 nations will commit to combining resources to prevent a global pandemic from re-occurring on the scale of Covid-19 and setting-up an early warning system.

Mr Johnson said “to truly defeat coronavirus and recover we need to prevent a pandemic like this from ever happening again”.

“That means learning lessons from the last 18 months and doing it differently next time around. I am proud that for the first time today the world’s leading democracies have come together to make sure that never again will we be caught unawares,” Mr Johnson said.

WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom supported the Carbis Bay health declaration, and said it was crucial to “build on the significant scientific and collaborative response to the COVID-19 pandemic and find common solutions to address many of the gaps identified”.

“To this end WHO welcomes and will take forward the UK’s proposal for a Global Pandemic Radar. As we discussed, the world needs a stronger global surveillance system to detect new epidemic and pandemic risks,” he said.

Mr Morrison on Saturday held his first bilateral meeting on the G7 sidelines with South Korean President Moon Jae-in, inviting the avid hiker to visit Australia.

“Our countries have come through Covid incredibly well. I commend your strong leadership in South Korea both in suppressing and containing the virus but also on the very strong economic performance.

“Both Australia and South Korea have come through Covid to date with stronger economies than before the pandemic while at the same time having considerably relative success in suppressing the virus and its devastating health impact on our communities.”

G7 nations, led by Mr Biden, are expected to collectively pushback against China’s aggressive behaviour and economic coercion of countries including Australia when the final communique is released. Asked about US and Australian naval vessels sailing together through the South China Sea on Thursday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said “we hope relevant countries can do more to promote regional peace and stability, rather than flex muscles”.