Following an incredibly good response to our public submissions, we’ve made great progress on the inquiry. This has been largely due to the high level of interest from people who were directly involved including those severely impacted by the response measures, and frontline organisations.
We have also made significant headway talking with decision makers and key advisors at a national, state and territory and local government level as well as representatives from industry bodies, community groups and the research sector. We still have more work to do in this area which will continue over the coming months.
Looking forward and preparing for another “unprecedented incident”
The Australian community should feel confident that our nation is prepared to deal with a future pandemic.
We all hope that it will be 30 or 50 years away. But complacency is never a friend.
We’ve seen how quickly an incident like COVID-19 can occur. And we have also seen the importance of good evidence in driving a proportionate response.
That is why an inquiry like this is so necessary. It gives people a chance to share what they learned, what they hope could be replicated if needed in the future, and what they would not do again.
Those lessons need to be captured. We can’t risk them being lost through the passage of time or because people are no longer in those positions.
We owe that to everyone who worked so hard to keep the community safe.
Bringing all of the jigsaw puzzle pieces together
The missing piece is the national response to COVID-19. We need to look at the whole picture including governance arrangements, National Cabinet, decision making and advisory structures.
Now is the time to draw upon the work that has already been done and bring those lessons—the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle–together. That has not been done before.
Nearly all of the states and territories have undertaken statutory or independent reviews and most are already in the public arena. They represent both a reflection of what worked well and also suggest recommendations for what could be done to enhance preparedness.
Of course, the impact of the major decisions, including border and school closures and other significant community issues, will be examined in this inquiry. Our focus will be through the perspective of the Australian Government’s response, and the aim to support a cohesive evidence informed national approach in the future.
Hearing your COVID-19 stories
Finally, capturing the voice of individuals is really important for us. We will soon be holding more detailed focus group discussions in addition to a series of stakeholder roundtable meetings. This next phase for the inquiry will help us hear more from older people, those living in rural and remote areas, people with a disability and First Nations communities among other priority groups.
It is a massive but essential task.
This is about making sure that all of the pieces of the jigsaw puzzle are considered.