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<\/figure>\n\n\n\nFrom the outset, critics predicted a whitewash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The government had already walked back its promise to hold a Royal Commission.<\/p> Instead, it settled for an \u2018Inquiry\u2019 that would lack broad powers to compel witnesses under oath and subpoena documents.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was billed as an \u201cindependent\u201d Inquiry, but two of the three\u00a0appointed<\/a>\u00a0experts had already shown favour towards the government\u2019s Covid policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And many complained the \u201cterms of reference\u201d were\u00a0too narrow<\/a>\u00a0to allow a full accounting of the decisions made by State and Territory governments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The year-long investigation recently concluded, and the findings were released in an\u00a0868-page report<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The lengthy report was littered with bureaucratese and praised many of the government\u2019s actions during the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The panel applauded the \u201cagility\u201d of the government to act early and lockdown in order to \u201cbuy time\u201d before the vaccines were rolled out, which it said, \u201cundoubtedly saved many lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The panel wrote, \u201cHad Australia not closed the international borders and imposed a national lockdown as quickly as we did, community spread would have overwhelmed most public health departments.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The panel also commended sectors for their \u201cquick action\u201d in developing tests for Covid-19, which enabled early surveillance, and held the virus at bay for the larger part of two years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That said, some important admissions of insufficiency were made.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The panel noted the inconsistency of state lockdowns, and how unprepared the country was for a pandemic, with no plan for international border closures, or shutting down schools and businesses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The panel conceded this led to staff shortages, a mental health crisis, and the \u201cerosion of trust\u201d towards government for its abuse of power and overreach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, instead of condemning the government\u2019s authoritarian policies, the panel called for greater centralised control of people and public health messaging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It suggested Australia\u2019s Centre for Disease Control become the \u201cauthoritative\u201d source of public health information in the next crisis, with no acknowledgement of how its US counterpart repeatedly\u00a0mishandled<\/a>\u00a0the pandemic response.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Gigi Foster, a professor of economics at the University of New South Wales, said the report lays out the \u201copposite\u201d of what needs to be done next time we face a health crisis. \u201cIf we adopt the recommendations of the panel, we will be worse off next time,\u201d said Foster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis report is going to be used as the justification for even more government interference and more centralised control. It will make it easier to lock down, close schools, close borders, and surveil people \u2013 none of that is really going to promote health,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Foster explained that we need to move away from the idea that Government is the only source of truth and information during a crisis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was the government\u2019s policies during the pandemic that lacked evidence and caused the most harm. It was the government that actually ramped up fear by holding daily press conferences and doing things like hiring young actors to pretend they were dying of Covid in hospital,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe report is several hundred pages of hand-wringing and brow-furrowing about the various people who were harmed by the government\u2019s policies, but then it proposes that we need even more government architecture in order to protect them next time. It\u2019s a fantasy,\u201d said Foster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In March 2020, Foster tried to warn policymakers of the need for a cost-benefit analysis of lockdowns and other restrictive measures, but she was met with fierce opposition and an unwillingness to listen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat\u2019s the irony,\u201d said Foster. \u201cWe were denigrated, and called granny killers back in the day, and labelled as the people who want to let it rip. But we never actually said that. We said we needed to direct resources towards trying to protect the elderly and the vulnerable.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to Foster, one of the most egregious and harmful actions of government was to use children as \u201cshields\u201d for the elderly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s unconscionable what we did to our children. The school closures, the masking, the vaccinating of young children \u2013 all to protect the elderly \u2013 it was essentially child abuse,\u201d said Foster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOf course, we need to focus protection for the elderly, but the idea that we would use our children as shields against viral threats to ourselves, our parents, or the elderly, is just morally bankrupt,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The panel excused the government\u2019s decisions, saying that it was only with the benefit of hindsight that lessons have been learned, but it failed to point out that there were\u00a0established pandemic preparedness plans<\/a>\u00a0already in place, that the government ignored.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s simply not good enough,\u201d said Ramesh Thakur, an Emeritus Professor at the Crawford School of Public Policy, ANU, and a former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is no clarity on why our own existing pandemic preparedness plans were ditched or why there was no cost-benefit analysis by our leaders,\u201d said Thakur.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThey became fixated on the dubious metric of covid \u2018case numbers\u2019 and lost sight of people\u2019s rights and civil liberties and ignored dissenting views,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Many believe the path to building back trust requires contrition and transparency \u2013 the government must apologise for its mistakes, compensate those it harmed, and reinstate the jobs it terminated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But, Health Minister Mark Butler said the leaders who oversaw Australia\u2019s pandemic response don\u2019t need to apologise. Appearing on\u00a0ABC<\/a>\u00a0this week, Butler was asked if those who supported prolonged lockdowns should apologise to the public to regain trust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cNo,\u201d said Butler unrepentantly. \u201cOur contribution to rebuilding trust is going to be to put in place a Centre for Disease Control.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n He added, \u201cI have enormous respect for all of the leaders who led our pandemic response \u2026. they worked enormously hard\u2026they made some incredibly courageous decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Thakur strongly disagrees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOur leaders were cowardly and hypocritical,\u201d he said. \u201cThey had no skin in the game and suffered no financial penalty while they decimated small businesses, paid no political penalty, and got sugar highs on their power trips.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Foster says that regaining trust can only happen when those people in power are gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cBuilding back trust is a bit of a pipe dream,\u201d said Foster. \u201cWe need a root-and-branch reform of the public health system, and it needs review by an independent body that recognises corruption is everywhere in Australian institutions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThat takes an awful lot of political courage, and it will never be called for by people currently in power, or those who were in power during the pandemic,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some Australian Senators are now hoping to inspire some of that political courage by\u00a0calling on<\/a>\u00a0the Prime Minister to honour his initial promise to conduct a Royal Commission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Senator for Victoria, Ralph Babet echoed his thoughts. \u201cSuch an epic failure of government policy deserves nothing less than a full royal commission,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe worst of the decisions were made by bureaucrats who are unelected and unaccountable. They are directly responsible for death, destruction, pain, family breakup, financial ruin and increased deaths which continue to this day,\u201d added Babet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![](\"https:\/\/www.activistpost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/02\/David-Avocado-Wolfe-Logo.png\"\/){kind=logo}
<\/a><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\nPanel Findings<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
Build Back Trust?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
A Royal Commission?<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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