This week I made $780 million in additional funding available to support the Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic by using the Advance to the Finance Minister.

One determination of $400 million was made from the Advance which was appropriated by the Parliament in the Appropriation (Coronavirus Economic Response Package) Act (No.2) 2019-2020; and

A second determination of $380 million was made from the Advance which was appropriated by the Parliament in the Appropriation Act (No.2) 2019-2020.

Both determinations were signed yesterday.

The determinations were registered on the Federal Register of Legislative Instruments, together with an Explanatory Statement (these will be available on legislation.gov.au).

The determinations provided $780 million to the Department of Health to fund the further procurement of masks and other emergency medical or emergency health equipment to deal with the impact of COVID-19 in Australia.