Valuable lessons learnt from Covid and Coaldrake

Peter Coaldrake headed the review into the Queensland government.

They say a week is a long time in politics, so I guess two years must be an eternity. This past week has seen the release of the seminal Coaldrake review into the Queensland government and the emergence of a refreshingly mature approach by governments, state and federal, to the third wave of coronavirus circulating in our community.

As Australians, we can be thankful to the public health advice that minimised the human death toll wrought by the past two years of Covid-19. Being an island nation allowed us to shut borders and then each state exercised greater restrictions to varying degrees of success.

As democratic, freedom-loving Aussies, we ceded huge rights to the public health orders that were imposed a little over two years ago. We endured the closure of public services like schools and transport and adjusted for home schooling, as well as not being able to visit loved ones.

Our police officers enforced intrastate movement restrictions. The worst restrictions were most certainly in Victoria, which had over 262 days of lockdown. The human cost, not just in fatalities, but in terms of mental health, businesses broken and basic removal of freedom of movement needs to be the new measure of the impacts of Covid-19. Social ­interactions that drive our humanity were set aside to save lives.

In those first two years, 2000 Australians lost their lives to Covid-19; in the past six months 8000 people have died of it in Australia. Yet this year, with four times as many people succumbing to this horrible virus, we have kept our economy open and freedom of movement has largely been restored across the country.

The massive public debt-infused measures of JobKeeper are no longer needed and a more normal approach to fighting inflation, maintaining economic growth and living with Covid has been adopted by governments.

It was great to see the federal Minister for Health, Mark Butler, alongside Home Affairs Minister Clare O’Neil, on Sunday announce the demolition of the last national border restrictions for people coming and going from Australia. On the same day, Queensland Health Minister Yvette D’Ath said a return to mask wearing was not on the agenda.

This is not to say Covid-19 is defeated. We have transitioned to a more nuanced and mature strategy than the blunt instrument of locking people in their homes. A sector-by-sector approach to managing the harmful impacts of Covid works well for aged-care recipients and those in hospitals.

We still have huge issues to confront as a community in terms of the medium to longer-term impacts of Covid-19. We need to deal with the huge waiting lists across Australia generated by the government-mandated delays to elective surgery. At the time they were accepted as necessary, but so is the quality of life afforded to people who are now waiting too long for hips, knees and other such operations.

We need to tackle as a national crisis the mental health effects of those who lost work, lost contact, and lost loved ones but were prevented from attending funerals.

Our children in schools have suffered; they’ve lost so much time at a crucial age for developing social skills and making lasting friendships. We can’t underestimate the educational lag that will require direct assistance to rectify as students move through their primary, secondary and tertiary education.

I’m encouraged that state and federal ministers have already identified these as priorities, but it will be up to the voting public to ensure these commitments are delivered. Our nation and its ongoing progress are intrinsically linked to a successful delivery of a fully fledged post-Covid plan for our economy and our society.

Globally, leaders are also embracing a more measured approach to Covid-19 and no doubt our Prime Minister would have experienced this first hand in his travels. Back home, we need to open up freedom of choice for the fourth dose of vaccine; if you want it, why should there be restrictions given we all know we’ll need it to continue to live with Covid.

In the same week as this measured and temperate response to the worst public health crisis since the Spanish flu 104 years ago, Professor Peter Coaldrake, a highly accomplished academic and public administrator, delivered a review that outlined significant and widespread recommendations for how to improve transparency and government accountability.

Coaldrake is no stranger to the Queensland public service, having been part of the original “Goss Squad” of Wayne Goss, Kevin Rudd and the newly anointed head of Prime Minister and Cabinet Dr Glyn Davis. He also counts Wayne Swan as a long-term mate.

The report deals with matters contemporaneous with the period of the Covid-19 response and makes for compelling reading.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk should be lauded for committing to implementing the review’s recommendations in their entirety and to the letter. We will be a stronger nation as the citizens having entrusted so much to their governments in the past two years can have confidence that lessons have been learnt and how we initially reacted to Covid-19 may now no longer be fit for purpose. We need to congratulate the collective nerve being held that “we can live with Covid”.

Equally, Queenslanders, having received such an insightful report from Coaldrake, will be watching to ensure the report and all its recommendations are implemented in full and that governments have equally learnt a new approach to delivering on the trust that we the citizens place in them. That is, to govern without fear or favour, fair and justly, transparently and for our collective futures.

Cameron Milner is a former Queensland Labor state secretary. He has worked on 33 election campaigns for Labor, including three election campaigns for Annastacia Palaszczuk.