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QUESTION ON NOTICE

Question:

21 November 2022

142. Why did Pfizer set the specification settings for the vaccine and not the TGA i.e. percentage of intact mRNA?

Answer:

Question Number: 274
PDR Number: SQ22-000645
Date Submitted: 21/11/2022
Department or Body: Department of Health

It is not clear what specification settings are being referred to. While Pfizer did specify the proposed primary efficacy outcomes of the clinical trials, this is the usual practice for any organisation public sector or private sector sponsoring clinical trials. The primary efficacy outcomes were agreed with major international regulators prior to the trials being ran, not uncommonly, if major regulators do not agree the primary outcomes are appropriate, a vaccine or medicine is not approved by regulators. All clinical trial results submitted to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) must comply with the Guideline for Good Clinical Practice. This is an internationally accepted standard for designing, conducting, recording and reporting of clinical trials. Compliance with the Guideline is a condition of approval for the conduct of a clinical trial. It provides assurances that clinical trial data is ethically obtained, credible, accurate, and that the rights, safety, and confidentiality of trial subjects are protected. Specifications including the percentage of intact mRNA were determined by the TGA, and TGA has the final say on the range of tests used by the TGA laboratories in batch testing of vaccines and whether individual batches are released or not.

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28/11/2022

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28/11/2022

Senator RENNICK: Thanks very much. Yet again, in terms of the overall modelling, have you got a breakout of how many turbines you need, how many solar panels you need to get to 82 per cent renewables? Ms Brunoro: Again, the Integrated System Plan does provide an indication of the type of the level of renewable energy, so just bear with us a second. Mr Peisley: Sorry, I don’t think we do have that figure in front of us. We’re happy to take it on notice and get it to you. Ms Brunoro: But if it gives you a sense of it, it’s nine times the amount of the existing variable renewable energy that currently is-well, as of when the last Integrated System Plan came out, it was operating in the NEM at that point. So that gives you the quantum ofSenator RENNICK: So nine times what? Ms Brunoro: Nine times. Senator RENNICK: Yes, but what? Ms Brunoro: The variable renewable energy that is currently in the National Electricity Market. Senator RENNICK: So what’s the cost of that? Ms Brunoro: Again, Senator, it depends on the mix of technologies that you’re going to deploy. There are some figures that we can pull out for you around what they roughly think around different-solar versus wind for instance. We can actually seek to provideSenator RENNICK: So can you give me some definite costings on that? Not now, but on notice?

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1. Can the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water provide a comprehensive roadmap of the work required for Australia to meet a 43% reduction in CO2 by 2030. This roadmap should set out the length of transmission lines, the number of transmission towers, the number of solar panels (for a give wattage), the number of wind turbines (for a given wattage), the number of batteries (for a given storage), the amount of lithium, copper, cobalt, nickel, concrete, and steel etc. needed to build the aforesaid generators and storage. It will need to include the amount of land needed for solar, wind, transmission and storage products, and the biodiversity offsets. Could the amount of CO2 required to build, recycle, or dispose of the aforementioned items also be included? Likewise, could the cost of building, recycling, and disposing of the aforementioned items also be clearly outlined? Biodiversity impacts such as increased tyre wear due to heavier batteries in cars, increased breaking distance on roadkill, impact on bats and birds from transmission lines and wind turbines, and removal of native flora and fauna due to land use should also be clearly outlined. 2. If the Department cannot provide, can it state which department is responsible for maintaining and tracking the roadmap and refer the question onto them?

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