‘Short and sharp’ lessons: Experts to examine how Australia handled pandemic

Three leading philanthropic groups have joined forces to fund an inquiry into Australia’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, to be led by former top public servant Peter Shergold.

Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest’s Minderoo Foundation, the Paul Ramsay Foundation and the John and Myriam Wylie Foundation will drive an inquiry they describe as non-political.

It is due to report back in September, well after the May federal election.

Former top public servant Peter Shergold will lead an independent review of how Australia handled the COVID-19 pandemic.Credit: Wolter Peeters

Governments around the country have resisted pressure for a wide-ranging examination of Australia’s response to the pandemic and how prepared the country is to deal with future crises.

More than 6000 people have died in Australia from the virus and more than 4.6 million people have caught it since it first entered Australia in early 2020.

Australia has fared better on these measures than many countries around the world, but there are lessons to be taken from what worked and what didn’t.

Professor Shergold, who led the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet under John Howard and Kevin Rudd, and is now chancellor of Western Sydney University, will lead the six-month review, which will have no power to compel witnesses to appear before it.

He hopes governments and bureaucrats will voluntarily engage with the review along with the broader community.

“This is not intended to be a politically partisan hatchet job. It is trying to say, there will be future pandemics, there will be future health crises, and what can we learn from this experience over the last two years?” he said.

“I am certain that whilst we will focus on health crises, as we start to do this there will also probably be implications for the other sorts of crises that governments now face on a regular basis, whether environmental or financial.”

The panel includes Doherty Institute director Sharon Lewin, University of Queensland chancellor and former head of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Varghese, businesswoman Jillian Broadbent, and 2021 Young Australian of the Year Isobel Marshall. They will work with non-profit data and economic analysis group e61 Institute.

They have also called for public input, but Professor Shergold said they don’t want the 30-page type of formal submission that organisations might typically offer to a government-run inquiry. Rather, submissions should be about 1500 words and offer an individual or organisation’s point of view on what worked, what didn’t and what could be improvised.

“We want this relatively short and sharp and [our report] very clear to read on what are the lessons we can learn from this,” he said.

Veteran Liberal MP and former minister Kevin Andrews used his final speech to Parliament last week to call for “a thorough, transparent review” of the national response to the pandemic to ensure Australia was fully prepared for the next such event.

“The COVID pandemic has exposed many weaknesses in our system of government and highlighted fault lines that we have long ignored,” he said.

As early as December 2020, former premiers Jeff Kennett and Peter Beattie said there was a strong case for a formal investigation of the handling of the pandemic.

Last year, several Labor MPs also backed the idea of an independent inquiry, as did crossbench senator Rex Patrick.

Paul Ramsay Foundation chief executive Glyn Davis said the philanthropic backers recognised Australia was still in the middle of the pandemic but thought it was important that a group outside of government take a step back and asked what had been learned.

“It’s a chance for a group of very experienced and clever people to look at the evidence and say this is how Australia performed. This is what would be possible next time. This is where we were good. This is where we need improvement, and how do we get that,” he said.

Submissions can be made online at e61.in/covid-review and will be kept confidential.

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