rewrite this content and keep HTML tags
A leading infectious diseases expert says an inquiry into the Covid pandemic must look at all aspects of governments’ responses, including factors beyond medical issues, such as decisions around lockdowns and school closures.
The federal government is on Thursday expected to announce a special commission of inquiry into the Covid pandemic, the Australian Financial Review reported late on Wednesday.
But the Albanese Labor government has already been criticised by the Coalition for not choosing a stronger form of inquiry such as a royal commission with investigative powers.
The panel will reportedly include three members – an economist, an epidemiologist and a public administration expert – to look into how Australia responded to the pandemic.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, and health minister Mark Butler are expected to announce the inquiry in Adelaide on Thursday. Albanese was in the city on Wednesday, and told a press conference he would be there “for a couple of days”.
Albanese and Butler’s offices did not respond to multiple inquiries about the commission of inquiry, but a spokesperson for the prime minister confirmed he would be in Adelaide.
Albanese had long promised a “royal commission or some form of inquiry” into the pandemic from when Labor was in opposition. In a speech in January 2022, as opposition leader, he said “an assessment” of the Covid response would be appropriate after “the heat of the pandemic” had passed.
Katy Gallagher, former chair of the Senate’s Covid committee and now finance minister, said in January 2022: “at the right point in time… there will have to be some assessment of all of the decisions taken”, including $337bn in spending.
In June, as prime minister, Albanese said: “I’ve said that there will be an inquiry of some form when we get through all this.”
At the time he said there were “issues ongoing with Covid” and that governments were seeking to “concentrate on the response to Covid, which is still ongoing, including the pressure that’s on the hospital system.”
In May, Albanese said: “Covid is still amongst us. What I’ve said is that when we are confident that we’re through those issues, then we’ll examine it.”
Coalition frontbencher Bridget McKenzie was critical that the response may stop short of a royal commission, claiming
“They are not delivering a royal commission and there is only one reason why, because a royal commission into Covid would have to look at national cabinet, have to look at how that functioned to keep us all safe through a global pandemic, but then look at the different jurisdictions’ reactions,” she told Sky News on Wednesday.
“That means seriously examining the actions of premier Daniel Andrews in my home state of Victoria, where we were locked in our houses, where we’re still dealing with the mental health outcomes particularly for our young people, and the behaviour of [Queensland premier] Annastacia Palaszczuk, when she slammed shut the border of New South Wales and Queensland.”
Peter Collignon, an infectious disease expert at Australian National University, welcomed news of an inquiry into Covid, saying he hoped it examined “all issues from various sides” of governmental responses.
“That includes lockdowns and school closures. The social and economic impacts, as well as the health impacts,” he said.
Prof Collignon said it would be a “complicated” issue to examine, and said he would be happy to be involved in the inquiry. He raised issues around excess deaths of older people, including questioning whether governments could have made earlier interventions, or whether social restrictions had knock-on effects on people accessing medical care; as well as how social issues like poverty had interacted with government responses.