(Bloomberg) -- The Australian government’s failure to rapidly procure and roll out vaccines during Covid-19 lengthened community lockdowns and cost the economy billions, an official inquiry into the nation’s response to the pandemic has found.
A panel of three experts with experience in governance, economics and health policy delivered its final report on the government’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic on Tuesday, after being commissioned by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in September 2023.
“It is telling that there were no plans for the execution of key measures, such as closing our international borders and enforced quarantine,” they said. “As a result, the pandemic response was not as effective as it could have been.”
Australia almost entirely shut its international borders at the beginning of the pandemic in March 2020, and initially embarked on a Covid zero strategy across the country, enforced through quarantines, infection tracing and lockdowns.
However, over the months of the pandemic, community frustration with the strict measures grew. The panel said that had lingered after the end of the crisis.
“Trust has also been eroded, and many of the measures taken during Covid-19 are unlikely to be accepted by the population again,” the report found.
Overall, the experts said Australia performed better than many comparable nations in terms of loss of life, the durability of its health system and economic resilience. However the slow rollout of vaccines in 2021, partly due to supply shortages, cost the economy an estimated A$31 billion ($20 billion).
“Our staged reopening occurred months later than it otherwise could have,” the report said. “There were also unforeseen health consequences to this timing, because it meant we transitioned to ‘living with Covid-19’ as the Omicron variants became prevalent in the community.”
In addition, the report found economic stimulus put in place by the government to protect jobs and avoid long-lasting damage “could have been improved to ensure value for money for taxpayers.”
It said the social consequences of the pandemic were significant as well, including a growing mental health crisis sparked by enforced social isolation.
“While some of the evidence is mixed, overall it indicates that a significant number of women and children experienced violence for the first time, and that there was also an increase in the severity of violence during the pandemic,” the report said.
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