The Hon. Greg Hunt MP
Minister for Health and Aged Care
TRANSCRIPT
9 September 2021
INTERVIEW WITH KARL STEFANOVIC
THE TODAY SHOW
E&OE…
Topics: Compassionate lockdown exceptions, vaccine update, ALP accuses Government of dragging its feet regarding Pfizer.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Well, more now on those bombshell emails suggesting the Government declined a meeting with Pfizer in June last year, when countries like the UK and US were already ordering vaccines.
Health Minister, Greg Hunt, joins us from Mount Martha in Victoria. Health Minister, thanks for your time this morning, appreciate it.
GREG HUNT:
Good morning.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Jacqui Lambie says you should just apologise and get on with it. I take it that’s not going to happen.
GREG HUNT:
Look, Pfizer’s already rejected these statements that were put out by the ALP yesterday. We engaged with the vaccine companies from the earliest possible times.
In February of last year, we commenced the program for vaccine research and searching for vaccines, engaged with Pfizer throughout – myself in May, my office in June. We actually did meet with Pfizer once they agreed to meet, and they did that at the end of June, my office met with them on 10 July.
As a country, though, we had a vaccine taskforce, three different platforms were recommended, four different vaccines, five different agreements, all secured by November.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Yeah.
GREG HUNT:
And what that meant is we’re now at the point where 21.5 million Australians have been vaccinated. Today we’ll pass 13.5 million first doses. And that means we’re less than a million to the 70 per cent mark.
So, huge progress. Pfizer’s rejected it categorically. It was wrong, the claims yesterday. But these materials were put out over a month ago by the Government.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Okay, let’s go through it blow by blow then. Pfizer says on June 30: let’s have a meeting. They say, we have the potential to supply millions of vaccine doses by the end of 2020, and produce hundreds of millions of doses in 2021. You must have been pretty pumped and excited by that.
Three days later a bureaucrat responds that you won’t be attending the meeting. I mean, there’s millions of doses potentially here for Australia and you couldn’t take that meeting. Why not?
GREG HUNT:
Now with great respect, that was a reference, as Pfizer has said yesterday, to their global capacity. We met at the, at the senior adviser level with Pfizer by 10 July, and were engaged in the significant meetings thereafter.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
But you didn’t, you didn’t meet. Greg, Greg, why didn’t you meet? I mean, this is very important stuff. This is securing Australia’s Pfizer supply. Why couldn’t you meet?
GREG HUNT:
No, no, no. What we created, to look across the world with over 100 different vaccine candidates, was a vaccine taskforce and scientific and technical advisory group led by Brendan Murphy and by one of the most senior people in the department. They worked right across all of these agreements – we were deeply engaged.
And very importantly, what that meant is we were able to secure all of these agreements. Our first doses arrived at exactly the same shipment as New Zealand. As Pfizer said, we received our doses at the maximum quantity and at the earliest possible time that was available.
They proposed the amount. And, and so we were able to secure for Australia AstraZeneca, because we knew that internationally the world would focus on the mass death and we had to produce for ourselves. Novavax, that we were able to secure Pfizer, the University of Queensland and the COVAX facility all by November.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Yeah.
GREG HUNT:
There were no earlier doses available, Pfizer has made that categorically clear.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
It just looked to me like you were dragging your feet. You were then asked to supply a confidentiality agreement at the time – pretty standard in this sort of thing. On 6 July, the bureaucrat responds that there is no need to meet with the global heads of Pfizer. They say there is no need. And signing a CDA isn’t usual practice.
Here we have a senior bureaucrat saying: it’s alright. We don’t need to meet the bosses or sign an agreement.
GREG HUNT:
Except we did.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
On July 10 Pfizer continues making the right waves – this is a company motivated. It says: let’s move discussions quickly and we can deploy vaccines at unprecedented speed. Pfizer wanted a timeline for vaccine rollout and they got nothing back.
GREG HUNT:
No. With great respect, what we were able to do- we did actually meet with senior international officials on July 10, and my office.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Did you, did you meet? And have you met them at this stage?
GREG HUNT:
No. No. This was done, this was done by the head of the Vaccines Taskforce who was leading those negotiations for the whole of the Government.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Why didn’t you, why didn’t you meet with Pfizer?
GREG HUNT:
I’d already engaged with Pfizer in May.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
But not met with them?
GREG HUNT:
Well before they were able to commence negotiations. So, no country in the world had an agreement at this point. Let me step back for a second.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Okay. On July 23, two weeks later, Pfizer, Pfizer does a deal – signed, sealed, and delivered, with the UK and the US – two weeks after that. I mean, come on. You should have taken the meeting.
GREG HUNT:
I respectfully say, we engaged in May, engaged in June, July – all the way through; followed the scientific advice, looking at all of the different vaccines; and, we were able to secure three different platforms, four different vaccines, five different agreements.
And most importantly, what that meant is domestic production which has allowed over 10.5 million AstraZeneca vaccines, plus Pfizer which arrived at exactly the same time as New Zealand – same shipment in February. There were no earlier doses available, that’s a myth being put out by Labor. And the company, the company has re-affirmed it.
And our job has been to save lives. And what we’re seeing now, with less than a million people over the course of- today, we’ll get to the point where there’ll be less than a million people who need to step forward for first doses to hit that first major milestone of 70 per cent.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
I think it’s, I think though, there’s no, there’s no argument from me about where things are at right now. But, but back then, Australia doesn’t finalise the deal until November. You were having initial meetings with Pfizer on June 30. They’re saying: let’s get this deal done, we’re got plenty.
Then two weeks after that they say: we’ve done a deal with US and UK. We don’t do a deal until November, and that deals for 10 million, which is not enough. I mean, that is, if that’s not, if that’s not dragging your feet, I don’t know what is.
GREG HUNT:
Can I, respectfully, deal with this? The point is, Pfizer yesterday – as they said before the Senate – made it clear there were no earlier doses available. What we received was the earliest possible available and we received it in the quantities that they made available.
And that’s because, understandably, they were focussing on mass death in the countries where they were producing. And it’s precisely because we knew that that we set up, in record speed, a sovereign domestic manufacturing program for AstraZeneca.
Part of this, there are some who have tried to denigrate either implicitly, or explicitly, a world-leading vaccine in AstraZeneca. It is the same vaccine myself, Brendan Murphy, Julia Gillard took, and that has saved lives.
And that’s why we’ve got the difference now in New South Wales. So we secured everything we could at the earliest possible time but we also knew, in an environment of mass death in Europe and the UK.
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Yeah.
GREG HUNT:
That’s where they would, understandably to be honest, place their early focus and so, therefore, we covered multiple vaccines. And I think proof is the fact that New Zealand’s shipment arrived on exactly the same day as ours, and that was in February.
Remember, it’s only, only in February compared with December where it started in the countries of mass death. So we were able to secure those early supplies, but we also made sure we had the AstraZeneca and that saved lives.
And where are we now? We’re seeing regional Victoria opening up. New South Wales is on a path to opening up. We’re on that path to 70 per cent. Today we will pass that mark with less than a million Australians to go to reach that 70 per cent.
So those things are so important. That’s the reality, and that’s the outcome of both working across all of the different suppliers, and securing all of those different options, recognising that Australia had to create its own sovereign domestic manufacturing capability in record time thanks to CSL and AstraZeneca – but also securing everything we could at the earliest possible time.
So, this is a deep personal passion, and that’s what we’ve been able to do. And ultimately, when you step back, Australia’s outcomes are vastly different to the agony that other countries have faced.
Still huge challenges and real loss, but we’re in a vastly different position because of the containment and because we were able to secure multiple vaccines and recognised that, early on, the world was going to focus with mass death. Therefore, we created a sovereign domestic manufacturing
KARL STEFANOVIC:
Okay. Alright. Over to the public. Greg Hunt, always good to talk to you. Thank you.
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