Then Australian prime minister & Liberal MP for Cook Scott John Morrison, his ministers and the 'National Cabinet' he created at the start of the SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 global pandemic fared reasonably well in the Commonwealth Government "COVID-19 Response Inquiry Report" released on Tuesday, 29 October 2024.
That is, fared reasonably well in comparison to other countries. The general public and other interested parties appear to have expressed other opinions to the Inquiry and the inquiry report itself is not without pointed criticisms.
"The fear in the community, and wider impacts on children and young people, could have been mitigated through more proportionate decisions based on a balanced approach that used evidence on the risk of viral spread in school settings and the effectiveness of in-school measures. Earlier communication and greater transparency around decisions, and improved engagement with experts and advocates to feed into government decision-making, would also have minimised the long-term harm caused by the suspension of face-to-face learning.
There was a strong sense that people with disability were not a priority, despite many being at a higher risk from COVID-19 infection and pandemic-associated disruptions to their usual supports. Poor planning, inadequate communications and a lack of transparency around prioritisation decisions in the vaccine rollout exacerbated a sense of being forgotten by government......
The initial strengthening of trust in government did not continue for the duration of the pandemic response. By the second year, restrictions on personal freedoms were less accepted across Australia as outbreaks tended to be short lived and infection rates remained low. The decrease in levels of trust reflects the complexity of the relationship between trust and engagement – trust is vital to ensuring adherence to life-saving restrictions, but those same restrictions could risk increasing distrust the more effective they are and the longer they are in place.
The Inquiry heard that there were many reasons for the decrease in trust. These varied within and across jurisdictions, but common drivers included concerns about the lack of transparency in and supporting evidence for decision-making, poor communication, the stringency and duration of restrictions, the implementation of mandated measures, access to vaccines and inconsistencies in state and territory responses.
During the pandemic, the advice underpinning the imposition or extension of control measures and the evidence that the measures were working or set at the right level were rarely made public. This fed the perception that the government did not trust the public to understand or interpret the information correctly and contributed to the decrease in trust....."
["Commonwealth COVID-19 Response Inquiry Summary", 29 Oct 2024, pp. 16, 39]
Office of Prime Minister & Cabinet, 29 October 2024:
On 21 September 2023, the Prime Minister the Hon Anthony Albanese MP announced an independent inquiry into Australia’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The inquiry reviewed the Commonwealth Government’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic to identify lessons learned to improve Australia’s preparedness for future pandemics.
The report includes nine guiding recommendations that are aligned with nine pillars of a successful pandemic response. The report identifies 19 immediate actions for the next 12-18 months, and a further seven medium-term actions prior to the next national health emergency.
Commonwealth Government "COVID-19 Response Inquiry Report" (full report DOCX 11.03 MB) at
https://www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/resource/download/covid-19-response-inquiry-report.docx
"COVID-19 Response Inquiry Summary: Lessons for the Next Crisis", released 29 October 2024 at
https://www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/resource/download/covid-response-inquiry-summary.pdf
Conclusion (at page 61)
Almost five years since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, for most Australians there is a collective desire to move on and forget what was an immensely difficult period. There is undoubtedly much to forget, but there is also much to be proud of as a nation.
Our hope is that this Inquiry will ensure that the immense body of work undertaken by individuals, community organisations, businesses, universities and research organisations, and government will be recognised into the future. There is also, importantly, much to learn from our collective experiences.
Our objective in undertaking this Inquiry was to document what worked and what could be done better for a future crisis, and to ensure that the lessons are learned so that we are better prepared for the next pandemic. With individuals and communities less prepared to change their behaviour we will not be able to simply rely on what worked during COVID-19, and must learn the lessons to ensure a future response is effective.
We heard from many individuals across government and in the community about the toll that the pandemic response had taken. People worked beyond normal limits, and many of the public health professionals, frontline community service and health staff, political leaders, health experts and public servants we relied on to get through the pandemic are no longer in their positions. This poses risks to our resilience to face another crisis.
Trust has also been eroded, and many of the measures taken during COVID-19 are unlikely to be accepted by the population again. That means there is a job to be done to rebuild trust, and we must plan a response based on the Australia we are today, not the Australia we were before the pandemic.
The CDC will be an important part of rebuilding that trust and strengthening resilience and preparedness, providing national coordination to gather evidence necessary to undertake risk assessments that can guide the proportionality of public health responses in future crises. However, as we continue to face more complex and concurrent crises in the years ahead, there is a need to build broader resilience in our systems.
We have focused our priority actions on building that resilience now, but it will need to be maintained over time. We cannot predict when the next global health crisis will occur – it may occur at any time – in 12 months, in a decade or beyond our lifetime – but human history tells us that it will occur, and it will once again test us in ways that are hard to imagine. Acting today will ensure in the future we are better prepared, benefiting from our learnings of what worked well and what didn’t during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Ms Robyn Kruk AO, Chair
Professor Catherine Bennett
Dr Angela Jackson
"Things we need to do to get ready for the next pandemic" at
https://www.pmc.gov.au/sites/default/files/resource/download/easy-read-recs-actions.pdf
