Prime Minister Scott Morrison.Credit:Alex Ellinghausen
The government will back a broad European Union motion calling for an inquiry into the lessons learned from the crisis and then steer it into two mechanisms.
The inquiry is likely to be run through a WHA committee chaired by the UK with independent oversight or a health regulation program at the WHA. Both would require China to comply,which is expected under the rules of membership of the World Health Organisation,but not enforced.
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Mr Morrison said the WHA could accommodate the recommendations made by the Europeans as a good first step.
"But you can't let the trail go cold,"he said on Friday."And I think Australia and the United States and the United Kingdom and countries all around the world would like to know what happened,because we don't want to see it happen again."
The United States has now walked back from suggestions that it had"enormous evidence"the virus came from a Wuhan laboratory. The broadly accepted view in the international intelligence and scientific community is that it emerged from a wildlife wet market.