Health Minister Peter Dutton said an infected person would not survive the 30-hour flight to Australia if they were to contract the virus in West Africa. Government officials said it could take up to a week to evacuate an infected person to Australia.
Officials revealed diplomats have been seeking an agreement for weeks with counterparts in the US, Britain and Europe to take any Australians who may need to be evacuated after contracting the virus, or to provide treatment in the region. No nation has yet been willing to supply such a guarantee.
"I think it would be a little irresponsible of an Australian government to order Australian personnel into this dangerous situation if we didn't have effective risk mitigation strategies in place and at the moment there is no way of doing that," Mr Abbott said.
Labor's foreign affairs and health spokeswomen Tanya Plibersek and Catherine King on Thursday stepped up their criticism of the government's approach, saying Australia's financial contribution was "not nearly enough" and urging the deployment of skilled personnel such as medical assistance teams.
That call came despite the opposition having been briefed by government officials – including Australia's chief medical officer as well as senior defence and foreign affairs officials on October 1 – about the enormous logistical and medical challenges involved in retrieving an Australian team were one sent to West Africa and an infection occurred.
"Ms Plibersek needs to explain today what the evacuation plans would be, how it is that if a health worker contracted the Ebola virus they would receive medical treatment? Because if the advice is not available to government, I don't know how it is available to the opposition," Mr Dutton said.
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