States criticise Commonwealth over Covid-19 handling

The commonwealth should have let states lead the vaccine rollout, been less secretive with information and provided more Defence Force personnel to states and territories, the Covid-19 inquiry has heard.

WA Premier Roger Cook. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The commonwealth should have let states lead the vaccine rollout, been less secretive with information and provided more Defence Force personnel to states and territories, the Covid-19 inquiry has heard.

Western Australia and Tasmania both used submissions to the inquiry to point out that the Coalition federal government had taken over the rollout of vaccines despite this traditionally falling into the remit of states and territories.

“The commonwealth assumed a co-ordination role in the vaccination rollout, which would have normally been a responsibility of the states,” WA’s submission said.

Tasmania also said vaccination was usually a state and territory responsibility and that the commonwealth’s takeover had created issues, such as potentially exasperating vaccine hesitancy.

“Issues with this approach included … inconsistencies in implementation of Australian Tech­nical Advisory Group on Immunisation eligibility advice,” the submission said.

“The timing of commonwealth government advice on ATAGI deliberations and decision points, particularly regarding the risks associated with the Astra­Zeneca vaccine and the importance of boosters, did not always create opportunities to co-ordinate public messaging.

“It is possible this contributed to vaccine hesitancy.”

Tasmanian Premier Jeremy Rockliff. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Martin Ollman

The government’s announcement of the Covid-19 inquiry late last year drew criticism from epidemiologists and the opposition for failing to have the scope to investigate decisions taken by states and territories, instead accepting only voluntary submissions.

Victoria, which instituted the longest Covid-19 lockdown in the world, did not make a submission to the inquiry, while submissions from WA, Tasmania, Queensland and South Australia spoke about the states’ relative success against the epidemic and how the commonwealth could have done better. WA blasted the common­wealth’s handling of the vaccine rollout, which it said was preferential to other states.

“WA received vaccines later than other jurisdictions due to our Covid-19-free environment,” the state’s submission said. “In the future, jurisdictions should not be penalised for their successful pandemic management.”

WA’s submission claimed the federal Coalition government had created further challenges by limiting the national resources made available to the state.

“WA was forced to procure CBD hotels for quarantine purposes after the commonwealth refused to allow the use of its own facilities, including various defence bases with their own medical services,” it said. “By the time the decision was made by the then commonwealth government to build the Centre for National Resilience at Bullsbrook, the pandemic had evolved … by the time it was built, quarantine controls were no longer used.”

WA said the ADF should “play a greater role in any future pandemic response … It has numerous facilities which could be used for quarantine purposes, significant transport capabilities for moving people and medical supplies and highly trained and disciplined personnel who could patrol and secure our borders. Despite this, the use of ADF infrastructure and personnel was extremely limited in WA’s experience,” the submission said.

Tasmania, WA and Queensland raised concerns at how nat­ional cabinet operated, with Tas­mania’s submission noting some national cabinet papers categorised as “secret” created challenges for sharing information with appropriate state servants.

“A review of the appropriate security classification for papers before release would have facilitated easier information sharing,” it said.

Queensland noted that “more timely information” had been needed from the commonwealth, while WA said the commonwealth should have provided “critical information” and distributed the agenda at least five business days before national cabinet met.

SA said in its submission that the blurred responsibilities between states and territories during the pandemic had “exasperated challenges with the Federation architecture”.

The SA government added that workforce shortages had been a key issue during the Covid-19 pandemic that still needed to be addressed.