Catherine King

Catherine King

CATHERINE KING MP
Federal Member Ballarat
Shadow Minister Infrastructure, Transport & Regional Development

T (03) 5338 8123
Email: Catherine.King.MP@aph.gov.au

Catherine King MP
Electorate Office
5 Lydiard Street North
Ballarat, VIC 3350

Bacchus Marsh
(every Friday from 10am to 3pm)
Lerderderg Library
Geoffrey Hine Room
215 Main Street
Bacchus Marsh, VIC 3340

Open in Google Maps
  • ABOUT
  • BALLARAT
  • MEDIA
    • LOCAL MEDIA
    • NATIONAL MEDIA
  • POLICY
  • CONTACT US
Thursday, 23 October 2014 / Published in MEDIA

EBOLA CRISIS

The foreign affairs department has revealed the UK and US Governments made specific requests for Australia to send personnel to help fight the Ebola crisis in West Africa, weeks ago.

In Senate Estimates today, the foreign affairs department’s Ebola response chief admitted that back in September the UK Government sent a specific request to the Foreign Minister, Julie Bishop, for Australian personnel to be sent to West Africa.

Foreign affairs’ officials confirmed this request was consistent with the views of UK Prime Minister, David Cameron.

The foreign affairs department also revealed that the US Government has requested Australia send personnel to West Africa.  That request was made formally through the Australian embassy in Washington DC, again in September.

In a further extraordinary admission, the head of the foreign affairs department said he had no information about a phone call between Prime Minister Abbott and US President Barack Obama where they discussed Australia making additional commitments to the Ebola crisis response effort.  That’s despite details of the call being released publicly by the White House.

The Abbott Government must immediately explain why it hasn’t acted on these very specific requests from the US and the UK – two of our closest friends.

Today’s revelations follow 24 hours of wildly different accounts of the Abbott Government’s preparedness to respond to the Ebola crisis in West Africa from the Chief Medical Officer, the head of the health department, the Defence Force, and the immigration minister.

The Abbott Government’s uninterested, chaotic response to this serious health crisis is just not good enough.

 

Tagged under: 2014

What you can read next

INFRASTRUCTURE AUSTRALIA AUDIT CONFIRMS NEED FOR REAL PLAN FOR INFRASTRUCTURE
PRESCHOOL FUNDING COULD GO
MARK DREYFUS & CATHERINE KING – MEDIA RELEASE – AIRPORT LAND RORT SHOWS WE NEED A NATIONAL INTEGRITY COMMISSION NOW – TUESDAY, 22 SEPTEMBER 2020

FILTER BY TYPE:

  • MEDIA
    • LOCAL MEDIA
    • NATIONAL MEDIA

FILTER BY YEAR:

2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020

© Catherine King. Authorised by Catherine King, Australian Labor Party, Canberra

Noise Birds

TOP