Australia's Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Wednesday that his country will staff a British -built treatment centre in Ebola Stricken Sierra Leone.
However, he added while his government would not compel Australian health workers to go to West Africa it would not prevent health workers who volunteer to go there.
Abbott said that Australia would provide $17.5 million to staff the 100 bed treatment centre being built by Britain.
For running the center, Australia has contracted Aspen Medical, a private Australian company.
"We anticipate about 240 staff required to do the job," Abbott told reporters in Sydney. "Most of them will be locally engaged. Some will be international and it's quite possible, even likely, that some will be Australian," he said, reports Reuters.
Australia is facing criticism for refusing requests from United States, Britain and charity organizations like Doctors Without Borders to send health workers to West Africa for fighting Ebola.
Australian Medical Association (AMA) president Brian Owler had said last month that Australia's response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa was a "shambles."
The sudden change in Australia's stance was because Britain has assured that it would treat any Australia health worker infected with Ebola, Abbott said.
Meanwhile, leader of the opposition Labor party, Bill Shorten, said that the government should do more to make it easier for Australian volunteers to travel to the Ebola stricken countries of West Africa.
"We believe the government... has not gone as far as it should to help tackle the scourge at the source," he said, reports the BBC.
