Fairfield mayor calls for royal commission into Australia’s Covid-19 response

A southwest Sydney mayor has called for a royal commission to investigate Australia’s management of Covid-19 as he said residents deserve answers as to why they were “treated differently” during lockdowns.

Medical staff assist locals queuing at a medical centre to undertake COVID-19 testing in Fairfield in 2021 in Sydney, Australia. Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images.

A southwest Sydney mayor has called for a royal commission to investigate Australia’s management of Covid-19 as his community deserves answers as to why they were “treated differently” during lockdowns.

Fairfield mayor Frank Carbone said his area was “blamed” for the spread of Covid and the government slapped southwest Sydney with stricter travel and work curfews compared to other local government areas.

“It was clear that the government was targeting areas out in western Sydney and demeaning these areas, not only through the restrictions but the way that they spoke about these areas,” he said.

Mr Carbone said the lockdown of Fairfield, notably mandatory testing every three days for anyone who lived in Fairfield but worked outside it, affected businesses and countless families’s livelihoods are still affected years later.

“It was clear that they had gone too far … the (former) premier betrayed our people at that time, I’ll never forget,” he said. “You could see that there was politics in play as we had the area close down once a bit of Covid was found.”

He said the lockdown on Fairfield was “too much punishment for our community to be treated so differently when our wages are the lowest in the state and people really rely on their income to live”.

“It was never a good look when you had half the city on the beaches having a great time, while the other half of the city was been demonised and basically blamed,” he said.

Fairfield mayor has called for a royal commission into Australia’s management of Covid-19. Picture: Richard Dobson

The federal government recently announced the introduction of an inquiry to investigate Australia’s response to the pandemic and make recommendations to improve response measures in the event of future pandemics.

In announcing the terms of the inquiry, Mr Albanese said actions by state and territory governments would not be in the scope of the independent inquiry headed by three leading experts in health, economic and public service.

Mr Carbone said he didn't “think it’d be too much to ask” for a royal commission to “make sure we get to the bottom of fixing things we did wrong”.

“When you think about Covid probably having the biggest cost to our community in our lifetime … you would assume that a royal commission would not only be something to think about but would be necessary,” he said.

“The point of a royal commission is about making sure that the things they did right, they do better, and the things they did wrong, they don’t do them again.”

Medical staff assist locals queuing at a medical centre to undertake COVID-19 testing in Fairfield in 2021 in Sydney, Australia. Picture: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images.

Mr Carbone said he hadn’t been approached to speak at the inquiry and was “shocked no one has raised for Fairfield or southwest Sydney to have representation at this inquiry”.

“I think they’re too scared of what’s going to come out and how and how poorly they all treated our community,” he said.

“Nobody stuck up for western Sydney, they all went into hiding and they all pretended that this was western Sydney’s fault when it wasn’t.”

“We’re not here to push blame, we’re here to give feedback and to make sure that people aren’t treated differently when it comes to postcodes again,” he said.