- Senator the Hon Marise Payne, Minister for Foreign Affairs, Minister for Women
- The Hon Greg Hunt MP, Minister for Health
The Australian Government welcomes the World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General's announcement of the Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response to evaluate the world's response into COVID-19.
We acknowledge the leadership and experience the distinguished co-chairs former President of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and former Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark will bring to the Panel.
This follows our call for an independent review into COVID-19 and a World Health Assembly resolution supported by a record number of 145 co-sponsors, including Australia. The resolution committed to an impartial, independent and comprehensive evaluation to review lessons learnt from the international response as well as further work to identify the source of the virus. Australia has been working closely with the WHO and key partners to maintain momentum and deliver on the World Health Assembly's mandate.
We are also pleased the WHO Director-General will convene a special session of the WHO Executive Board on COVID−19 in September 2020.
Australia looks forward to working with the Panel and the international community to ensure this important evaluation helps to strengthen the WHO and prevent and mitigate future pandemics.
