Review finds Australians unlikely to accept lockdowns again

ABC NEWS (Australia)

Australia's COVID-19 response frayed after early successes, damaging the public's trust and making it unlikely that lockdowns or other harsh restrictions will be tolerated again, a federal government review has found.

Transcript

00:00There were elements that were not dealt with.

00:05The response that Australia had to COVID was not as effective as it could have been.

00:09There was a likening to trying to build a plane as you were flying it.

00:14So there were some elements, particularly around quarantine and the international border

00:19closure.

00:20Health Minister Mark Butler is saying today that there was no plan in place for either

00:24of those.

00:25So a sense of Australia not being prepared in that way.

00:29And so that's what this report is looking to do too.

00:32If there is a pandemic in the future, which people say there will be, that there is better

00:36preparedness by Australia.

00:38So it did cover a lot of things.

00:40Aged care, talking about the staffing issues there, that staffing woes and not being able

00:44to sort of ramp up a surge workforce did add to the crisis that we did see in aged care

00:50homes.

00:51The mental health and social impacts on people, particularly children, you know, when we looked

00:56at things like school lockdowns too.

00:59Also some commentary around the way that Australia procured and then delivered vaccines, saying

01:05that some of the delays with the COVID vaccine there did lead to additional lockdowns, which

01:10then led to billions of dollars in, which cost billions of dollars for the Australian

01:16economy as well.

01:18There were some interesting comments from the Health Minister Mark Butler today who

01:21gave a press conference after this report to the inquiry was released.

01:26He said that you could argue that Australia was actually in a worse position to handle

01:31or respond to a pandemic now than previously.

01:34He responded to things like the workforce, saying that the health workforce was just

01:39exhausted and burned out, that governments around the country are in more debt.

01:44And also he talked about this element of trust, saying in those initial days of the pandemic,

01:49there was a great sense of trust from the Australian community.

01:53Of course, we remember the way that people responded to the lockdown and some of those

01:57big measures like that, saying that as those lockdowns and tough restrictions continued

02:04for years, that trust did wane in the community as well.

02:09There was quite a strong quote in the report saying that trust has been eroded and many

02:13of the measures taken during COVID-19 are unlikely to be accepted by the population

02:19again.

02:20Now, the Treasurer, Jim Chalmers, did also talk to the economic impacts, saying that

02:26not only were they felt at the time, but that they continued to play out, referring to inflation.

02:32He did say that while there were rapid and extraordinary responses that were required,

02:37he said some of the decisions made were mistakes, worth, of course, pointing out that it was

02:42his predecessors, the former Liberal government that was handling those early days of the

02:47pandemic.

02:48But here's Treasurer Jim Chalmers speaking earlier.

02:51The modelling cited in the report says that the extended policy support, which didn't

02:56always move in line with the health advice, meant that peak inflation was at least two

03:02percentage points higher than it could have been.

03:07On the design of the economic response, we saw some very good ideas badly implemented

03:13and poorly targeted.

03:15Labor called for and supported programs like JobKeeper, but we were very, very clear at

03:20the time that the support should have been rolled out faster and that it should have

03:25been better targeted.

03:27So Jim Chalmers saying there that some of the decisions made were costly and inflationary.

03:33We did hear from Opposition Leader Peter Dutton this afternoon responding to that.

03:38Take a listen.

03:40If Labor had their way at a federal level, there would have been an extra $81 billion

03:46that was spent.

03:47We know that they were opposed to JobKeeper, they were for it.

03:51We saved lives and we saved livelihoods and I think Australians should be proud ultimately

03:56of what happened here in WA, what happened with the federal government financial support

04:02to keep small businesses alive.

04:05And so Evelyn, now to this point that you mentioned a little bit earlier with Health

04:09Minister Mark Butler saying Australia is now in a worse position than it was when the pandemic

04:13hit.

04:14What's being done to address this in terms of acting promptly on one of the key recommendations?

04:20Yes, so there were a series of recommendations that needed to happen immediately and then

04:25some more longer term, but one of them was around this Centre for Disease Control or

04:31CDC that people might know.

04:33So the government, including the Health Minister, was really keen to point that out today that

04:37Australia is working to establish that, announcing today $251 million going towards that.

04:45And the Health Minister says it would be pulling together critical information and experts

04:50to be able to deliver timely and trusted information to the Australian public in a future pandemic.

04:57So he said that Australia was really one of the only OECD countries, if not the only,

05:03that didn't have one of those CDCs set up when COVID hit.

05:07So saying that the government is working to establish that.

05:10But look, there were a series of recommendations and no doubt we'll keep hearing those responses

05:15around mental health and the social impact, particularly around schools and aged care

05:20homes.

05:21So some of the most vulnerable Australians.

05:24The CDC should give us the capability as governments and communities to have a good

05:29evidence base for making decisions that, for example, impact children and young people,

05:35that balances risk and benefit, that takes account of non-health impacts, particularly

05:40the mental health impacts, which is a recurring theme of this report.

05:45So I think the nature of the report, the measured way, which in no way pulls punches, that the

05:53panel seeks to direct us for the future, really vindicates the way in which we designed

05:59this report or this inquiry.

06:03Now while we may not want to think about it, experts today have said that Australia will

06:07face or the globe will face another pandemic at some point.

06:12And Jo, you'll remember that when we talked about COVID-19, everyone spoke about it as

06:16if it was unprecedented.

06:18Experts today saying that when we do see a future pandemic, we won't be able to use that

06:23word, we need to be better prepared as a country to be able to respond.

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