Renewed TB focus on Torres Strait border

Federal parliament has passed an opposition motion expressing support for long-term funding for TB clinics on both sides of the border with PNG.

The federal government has supported an opposition motion expressing support for long-term funding for tuberculosis clinics on both sides of Australia's international border with Papua New Guinea.

Federal funding had been expected to end shortly for Queensland government-run clinics on Saibai and Boigu islands in the Torres Strait.

PNG patients with multi-drug resistant TB were to be directed to their regional capital Daru.

Last year Australian authorities admitted for the first time two Torres Strait islanders contracted the multi-drug resistant strain in 2009.

Opposition MP Warren Entsch, whose electorate takes in the Torres Strait, moved the motion.

He told Queensland correspondent Stefan Armbruster it marks a new direction by the federal health department.