JobKeeper proves pandemic-winning policy, super, HomeBuilder get thumbs down

Jobs payment named the best policy move of Covid crisis, but HomeBuilder, early super given thumbs down.

An iPhone device displays the CovidSafe app released by the Australian government. Picture: Dave Hunt

Scott Morrison’s $100 billion JobKeeper scheme has been judged the best prepared “emergency” measure by any Australian government dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic but the Coalition’s new early access to superannuation and HomeBuilder grants have been deemed the worst.

An independent assessment of 20 major government decisions in 2020 has also found that the Andrews’ Victorian Labor Government’s preparation for adopting emergency powers during the pandemic was better than the process in both Queensland and NSW.

But the researchers heavily emphasised that the aim of the assessment is to look at policy development not implementation and that the study did not assess the Victorian Government decision to hire private security guards instead of police or defence personnel to guard quarantine hotels.

The Federal COVIDSafe App for mobile phone tracing of coronavirus contacts was also rated at the top of the urgent decisions taken to deal with the pandemic.

The best non-urgent Government policies named in 2020 were the Queensland State Government’s introduction of a Queensland Transport Ombudsman the Federal Government’s My Health Record scheme.

Medevac repeal rated ‘unacceptable’

The worst non-urgent Government policies in 2020, rated as “unacceptable” were the Morrison Government’s repeal of the Medevac laws, designed to give doctors a great person say in transfer of asylum seekers from offshore detention to Australia, and the Victorian Government’s Free TAFE courses which cost $172m to provide 42 courses free to students.

None of the eight government emergency decisions were rated as “unacceptable” but neither were any deemed “excellent” and many, despite sound processes and legislation under duress, had failures or unexpected consequences.

These included the Victorian emergency powers, with a quarantine failure that cost more than 800 lives, and the early superannuation access which had double the estimate of applicants and payouts.

With the aim of improving government decision making and policy development the newDemocracy Foundation uses the Institute of Public Affairs and Per Capita Australia think tanks, respectively “free-market” and “progressive”, to annually assess a selection of major Federal and State Government decisions using independent business criteria.

The annual survey combines the scores of the two research groups to give a point score and a rating from excellent, through solid, mediocre and down to unacceptable.

The 2020 study shows of the 20 policy decisions nine cases received solid scores (between 7.0 and 9.5), two got unacceptable scores (below 5.0) and the remaining 9 received mediocre scores (between 5.0 and 6.5).

Former NSW Education Minister, Verity Firth, executive director Social Justice at University of Technology Sydney, a member of the project steering committee, the policy project was particularly relevant in the pandemic year and demonstrated the strength of strong, independent public service policy advice.

“This project is particularly relevant in a year when Australians are watching the American government’s response to the COVID crisis and the hyper-partisanship of the US election,” Ms Firth said.

Early-access super criticised

“Our project shows evidence-based decision making in government is something that can, and should, be above politics. In addition, the pandemic response in Australia proves the effectiveness of a well organised and well-funded public sector and the public trust that flows from that”, she said.

Both think tanks criticised the Coalition’s early access to superannuation to help people who had lost jobs or income during the COVID-19 pandemic because it lacked consultation with superannuation funds and the first estimates of 1.5 million people withdrawing $27 billion almost doubled to 4 million people withdrawing $42 billion.

Per Capita said: “It is understood that more than half a million people have completely emptied their superannuation accounts, and that the ATO has not been checking whether people choosing to empty their accounts are in fact eligible for the scheme.”

But the Morrison Government’s JobKeeper program, payments through employers using the tax system to keep people connected to the jobs they lost during the pandemic, was praised for using existing system and the “equity” of the measure which did not give higher payments to higher income earners.

Former NSW Treasury Secretary, Percy Allan, who chairs the project’s Steering Committee said: “Governments repeatedly get into in trouble because of a faulty decision-making process”.

“Good process leads to good policy which in turn makes for good politics. That’s clear from the 60 case studies we have now completed over the last three years. Politicians should heed the lessons from our case studies if they want to restore credibility with an increasingly jaded electorate,” Professor Allan said.