Some 300,000 doses of the Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccine arrive at Sydney International airport on February 28.Credit:Getty Images
This is the first time the Morrison government has publicly claimed that Europe asked for export approvals to be withdrawn.
The spokesman also rejected an overnight statement from the European Commission that noted it had formally blocked only 250,000 doses bound for Australia.
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“The European Commission is arguing semantics but at the end of the day,all we want is what Australians have ordered so we can get more vaccines in arms,” the government spokesman said.
Mr Morrison went into detail about the negotiations with the European Union at his Wednesday press conference,saying Australia had reached an agreement last September for the 3.8 million vaccines but this was cut to 1.2 million in January and cut again to 250,000 in February.
The European Union then blocked the 250,000 doses on March 3,he said.
Mr Morrison said he was pleased to hear in the past 24 hours that the European Union had indicated it would not restrict the vaccines going to Australia,adding that he would write to AstraZeneca to seek the full shipment of 3.8 million doses.
“So,if it is,indeed,the position of the European Union that they are happy for these export
licences to be granted and their 3.8 million doses to come to Australia,then we would encourage them to do that in response to our request,” he said.
The Morrison government is also angry with the European Commission for not replying to a request to ship life-saving vaccines to PNG to help ease a rapidly worsening outbreak.
Warning the PNG outbreak could morph into a health crisis for the region,Mr Morrison last month asked European leaders to redirect 1 million of Australia’s 3.1 million unsupplied doses to PNG.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is yet to send a reply to Mr Morrison’s written plea nearly three weeks after it was sent.
Australian officials have been lobbying their EU counterparts to have the 1 million doses released to PNG but are pessimistic about their chances.
The European Commission is understood to have questioned why Australia would want Europe to send AstraZeneca vaccines to PNG when Australia has domestic production capacity at a factory in Melbourne.
Australia has given PNG 8000 doses for front-line health workers but sending more doses could be politically difficult given Canberra’s rollout is already behind schedule.
Liberal MP Dave Sharma,a former ambassador to Israel,criticised the silence from Europe.
“If Europe is unable or unwilling to provide to Papua New Guinea 1 million of the vaccine doses contracted to Australia,they should be up front and declare so now,” he said. “It’s been more than two weeks and we are yet to receive a response,and given the speed and scale of the outbreak in PNG,time is of the essence.”
The EU’s own rules state that shipments bound for low- and middle-income countries such as PNG should not be blocked.
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However,AstraZeneca may not even have enough doses to send to Australia as first promised given it is having trouble ramping up production. The company had planned to supply 180 million doses to the EU in the second quarter but will only deliver 40 million in that time.
Liberal MP Warren Entsch,whose North Queensland seat of Leichhardt is close to PNG,said an apparent lack of urgency from Europe was “shameful and disappointing”.
“To deny doses to a developing country with a very poor health system and blowout of coronavirus is just outrageous. I’m really bloody angry about it,” he said. “Europe needs to be reminded that this is a pandemic and they need to offer support to where it is most needed. What we are talking about here is a very modest amount of doses for an area in critical need.”