COVID-19 Response Inquiry Summary Report: Lessons for the next crisis

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 report summary identifies key issues from the inquiry.

Endnotes

  1. World Health Organization, Covid-19: make it the last pandemic, 74th World Health Assembly, World Health Organization, May 2021, 23.↩
  2. N Ray, Independent Evaluation of the JobKeeper Payment, The Treasury, Australian Government, 2023.↩
  3. Critical Health Resource Information System, extracted 18 September 2024. Data provided by the Department of Health and Aged Care. COVID‑19 cases in ICU refers to COVID‑19 positive patients admitted to intensive care.↩
  4. Critical Health Resource Information System, extracted 18 September 2024. Data provided by the Department of Health and Aged Care. COVID‑19 cases in ICU refers to COVID‑19 positive patients admitted to intensive care.↩
  5. R Holden and A Leigh, 'The race that stopped a nation: lessons from Australia's Covid vaccine failures', Oxford Review of Economic Policy, 2022, 35(4), 818‑832.↩
  6. Critical Health Resource Information System, extracted 18 September 2024. Data provided by the Department of Health and Aged Care. COVID‑19 cases in ICU refers to COVID‑19 positive patients admitted to intensive care.↩
  7. S Morrison, Update on coronavirus measures [media release], Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, 20 March 2020.↩
  8. M Peters and C Marnie, National Aged Care COVID-19 Survey 2022, Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, March 2022.↩
  9. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, The first year of COVID-19 in Australia: direct and indirect health effects, 2021, v.↩
  10. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, The first year of COVID-19 in Australia, vi.↩
  11. J Worthington, Z Sun, R Fu, J Lew, K Chan, Q Li, A Eskander, H Hui, K McLoughlin, M Caruana, S Peacock, J Hai Ein Yong, K Canfell, E Feletto and T Malagón, 'COVID-related disruptions to colorectal cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment could increase cancer Burden in Australia and Canada: a modelling study', PLOS ONE, 2024, 19(4).↩
  12. ORIMA, Final report on qualitative research with specific cohorts on their lived experiences with the COVID‑19 pandemic, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, July 2024.↩
  13. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Australian National Accounts: National Income, Expenditure and Product, March 2024, 2024.↩
  14. Department of the Treasury submission.↩
  15. World Health Organization, Joint external evaluation of IHR core capacities of Australia: mission report, 24 November - 1 December 2017, 2018, 4‑5.↩
  16. Australian National Audit Office, Management of international travel restrictions during COVID-19, Auditor-General Report No 12, 2021‑22, para. 2.24; Information provided by the Department of Home Affairs.↩
  17. Australian National Audit Office, Management of international travel restrictions during COVID-19, 2021, para 2.24.↩
  18. Data.gov.au, Temporary visa holders in Australia, 26 September 2024, data as at 31 March 2020; Australian Bureau of Statistics, National, state and territory population, March 2020, 24 September 2020.↩
  19. Australian Bureau of Statistics, National, state and territory population, March 2020, website, n.d.↩
  20. Plans include the National Health Emergency Response Arrangements (2011), the Emergency Response Plan for Communicable Disease Incidents of National Significance (2016), the Emergency Response Plan for Communicable Disease Incidents of National Significance: National Arrangements (2018) and the Australian Health Management Plan for Pandemic Influenza (2019).↩
  21. V Bell, Report of the Inquiry into the appointment of the Former Prime Minister to Administer Multiple Departments, Attorney-General's Department, 25 November 2022, para 20.↩
  22. JM Basseal, CM Bennett, P Collignon, BJ Currie, DN Durrheim, J Leask, ES McBryde, P McIntyre, FM Russell, DW Smith, TC Sorrell and BJ Marais, 'Key lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic response in Australia', The Lancet, 2023, 30; J Halton AO, National review of quarantine, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, 2021; Illumina submission; Qantas submission; W Ahmed, A Bivins, S L Simpson, P M Bertsch, J Ehret, I Hosegood, S S Metcalfe, W JM Smith, KV Thomas, J Tynan and J F Mueller, 'Wastewater surveillance demonstrates high predicative value for COVID-19 infection on board repatriation flights to Australia', Environment International, 2022, 158; ACT Government submission.↩
  23. Meeting 17.↩
  24. Queensland Nurses and Midwives' Union submission.↩
  25. N Biddle, M Gray and I McAllister, 'Federalism and confidence in Australian Governments during the COVID-19 Pandemic', Publius: The Journal of Federalism, 2024, 54(2), 259.↩
  26. W Jennings, G Stoker, V Valgarðsson, D Devine and J Gaskell, 'How trust, mistrust and distrust shape the governance of the COVID-19 crisis', Journal of European Public Policy, 2021, 28(8), 1174‑96.↩
  27. B Zaki, F Nicoli, E Wayenberg and B Verschuere, 'In trust we trust: the impact of trust in government on excess mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic', Public Policy and Administration, 2022, 37(2).↩
  28. Meeting 135.↩
  29. ORIMA, Final report on qualitative research with specific cohorts on their lived experiences with the COVID‑19 pandemic, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, July 2024.↩
  30. Human Rights and Trust in Government Roundtable.↩
  31. ORIMA, Final report on qualitative research with specific cohorts on their lived experiences with the COVID‑19 pandemic, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, July 2024.↩
  32. SECNewgate Research, COVID‑19 Response Inquiry Community Input Survey: Final Report, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, August 2024.↩
  33. University of Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute submission.↩
  34. ORIMA, Final report on qualitative research with specific cohorts on their lived experiences with the COVID‑19 pandemic, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, July 2024.↩
  35. ORIMA, Final report on qualitative research with specific cohorts on their lived experiences with the COVID‑19 pandemic, Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, July 2024; Australian Bureau of Statistics, COVID-19 mortality in Australia: deaths registered until 31 January 2024, February 2024.↩
  36. Australian Bureau of Statistics, COVID-19 mortality in Australia: deaths registered until 31 January 2024, February 2024.↩
  37. Australian Bureau of Statistics, Deaths, Australia, 2019; Australian Bureau of Statistics, COVID-19 mortality by wave, 16 November 2022.↩
  38. Australian Bureau of Statistics, COVID-19 mortality by wave, 16 November 2022.↩
  39. Australian Bureau of Statistics, COVID-19 mortality in Australia: deaths registered until 30 September 2023, October 2023.↩
  40. K Raynor and L Panza, 'Tracking the impact of COVID-19 in Victoria, Australia: Shocks, vulnerability and insurances among residents of share houses', Cities, 2021 (117).↩
  41. L Berg and B Farbenblum, As if we weren't humans: the abandonment of temporary migrants in Australia during COVID-19, Migrant Worker Justice Initiative, 2020.↩
  42. Federation of Ethnic Communities Councils of Australia submission.↩
  43. Department of Health and Aged Care, Statement of intent: working together to support the Australian Centre for Disease Control, 10 November 2023.↩
  44. Department of Health and Aged Care, Statement of intent, 10 November 2023.↩
  45. World Health Organization, Global competency and outcomes framework for the essential public health functions, 10 June 2024.↩