Matt Cunningham opinion: Covid inquiry is too narrow

Did the stellar exploits of our state and territory leaders keep us safe during Covid? Courtesy of the inquiry means we’ll never know, argues Matt Cunningham.

According to Sir Humphrey Appleby, there are two basic rules of government.

Rule 1: Never look into anything you don’t have to.

Rule 2: Never set up an inquiry unless you know in advance what its finding will be.

Sir Humphrey might have been advising the hapless Minister Jim Hacker in the (supposedly) fictional 1970s comedy Yes, Minister, but you could be easily forgiven for thinking he has been offering his pearls of wisdom to the Territory and Commonwealth governments.

Rule 1 goes a long way to explaining why the Territory Government has no appetite for an independent inquiry into some questionable activity within our justice system; the attempted prosecution of former children’s commissioner Colleen Gwynne, and the hastily laid murder charge against former police officer Zachary Rolfe.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese. Picture: NewsWire / Nicki Connolly

Rule 2 will help explain why the Albanese Government this week announced a “deep inquiry” into Australia’s handling of the Covid-19 pandemic that will not scrutinise the actions of state and territory governments.

It’s hard to believe just over three years on, but from early 2020 Australians were subjected to extraordinary measures at the hands of our governments.

In Queensland mothers were separated from newborn babies, in Victoria, public housing tenants were locked down for weeks with a few hours’ notice.

Western Australia effectively cut itself off from the world and continued to do so long after the science suggested it was the best public health advice.

Perhaps the most galling scene over this bizarre period was watching pregnant Ballarat mother Zoe Buhler – dressed in her pyjamas – being arrested and charged with incitement over the creation of an anti-lockdown protest event.

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, makes an announcement at the Royal Exhibition Building, with Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nicki Connolly

Two years later the charges were dropped after Victoria Police determined it was “not in the public interest to continue with the prosecution”.

We weren’t immune to some of this madness here in the Territory.

There were a host of new rules and warnings of harsh penalties for those who refused to obey.

In November 2021, Police Commissioner Jamie Chalker vowed to find protesters who allegedly threw liquid with a “bitter taste” at police officers that left “an immediate effect of burning”.

“We’re coming for you,” Mr Chalker said.

A man was charged, but when his case was heard almost a year later, he was found not guilty after the prosecution failed to meet a court-ordered deadline to disclose evidence.

According to the man’s barrister, John Lawrence SC, a chemical analysis of the liquid (which offered no proof the liquid was a dangerous chemical) was finalised by November 30, 2021, it was given to prosecutors on February 8, 2022, but not handed to the defence until July 13, 2022, just a few days before the case was due to be heard.

In arguing successfully for costs, Mr Lawrence told the court: “This is an event that was beginning, middle and end, political.”

Was Mr Lawrence right, or were authorities simply trying to uphold public order during an unprecedented health crisis?

Matt Cunningham is the Northern Australia Correspondent and Darwin Bureau Chief at SKY NEWS Picture: Justin Kennedy

These are the sort of questions a proper inquiry might answer.

For as residents we placed a great deal of faith in our leaders – particularly state and territory leaders – during the pandemic.

We endured the closure of state borders, agreed to mandatory vaccination, and locked ourselves in our homes at times, all because we were told this was for the greater good.

The trust we placed in our leaders afforded them unexpected popularity.

There’s little doubt the Covid pandemic helped Michael Gunner’s Labor government secure a second term.

It looked in huge trouble early in 2020 before the bug arrived.

Annastacia Palaszczuk won a third term in Queensland in November 2020 on the back of a narrative that she had kept her residents safe.

Matt Cunningham Sky News dinkus

In March 2021, the border-closure king Mark McGowan secured a landslide victory in Western Australia.

And during the same month, Peter Gutwein’s Liberal government was returned in Tasmania.

But as time went on, voters started to question how governments had handled the pandemic. The incumbent South Australian Liberal government was booted out in March last year, and two months later the Morrison government – which had experienced extraordinary popularity at the height of Covid – was defeated.

So, did the stellar exploits of our state and territory leaders keep us safe during Covid?

Or was the public health emergency for political gain?

Perhaps it was a bit of both. But it’s a question the federal government’s new inquiry won’t be answering.

– Matt Cunningham is the Sky News Darwin bureau chief and North Australia correspondent.