Julie Bishop announces $30m to fight tuberculosis and malaria

The federal government has pledged $30 million over three years to help fight tuberculosis and malaria in the Indo-Pacific region.

Foreign Minister Julie Bishop made the announcement in Canberra at the launch of the Australasian Tuberculosis Forum, describing the disease as a "scourge".

The TB Alliance will receive a third of the money to support late stage clinical trials of new treatments.

Another $10 million will go towards The Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, with the remaining $10 million given to Medicines for Malaria Venture to develop antimalarial drugs.

Earlier on Monday, the government was urged to "wade in" and boost funding to help develop a new tuberculosis treatment for the Asia Pacific.

The head of Policy Cures said Australia's current contribution to the fight was "a toe in the water", with Southeast Asia and the western Pacific accounting for 56 per cent of all new TB cases.

"What I would like to see is for Australia to take that toe in the water and wade in," Dr Mary Moran told reporters on the eve of World TB Day.

Current TB treatments were decades-old and ineffective, she said.

New drugs in development were faster and much cheaper, and just $22 million in funding globally would ensure they were readily available, she said.