Former Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott has raised fears Australia could be placed under lockdown again if a full Royal Commission investigation into the pandemic response is not held.
Mr. Abbott, who served in the top job from 2013 to 2015, said Australia stopped being a democracy for a couple of years during the pandemic.
The former Liberal Party leader spoke to his former Chief of Staff Peta Credlin following the release of a submission from the former Liberal Health Minister Greg Hunt to the current government’s COVID-19 inquiry.
Then presiding federal health minister during the pandemic questioned the measures implemented by state and territory leaders at the time, who rolled out vaccine mandates, lockdowns, and domestic border closures
Mr. Abbott told Sky News Australia said the cure was worse than the disease.
“The policy to deal with COVID turned out to be far worse than the disease itself. And when you go back and look at this honestly and dispassionately, you'd have to say that the first mistake that governments made was throwing out the carefully prepared pandemic plans that we all had in panic in early March 2020 because of the dire photos coming out of overwhelmed Italian hospitals,” Mr. Abbott said.
“But I think that had a lot more to do with the Italian hospital system than it did with the severity of the disease itself.”
Mr. Abbott also echoed calls from several Australian senators for a Royal Commission, raising fears the country could experience lockdowns again.
“My fear is that without a fair dinkum Royal Commission-type inquiry into the whole response to COVID, next time a pandemic happens, and it will, we will take the over-the-top response to this one as the model for all future actions.” Mr. Abbott said.
“But the last thing we'd want to be is locked up for several years, again, in response to a disease that turned out to be relatively mild.”
No Longer a Democracy: Abbott
While he supported the medical advice, Mr. Abbott felt this should not come at the expense of Australia’s democracy.“I’m confident that inside the Coalition a lot of these issues would have been more debated than they seemed on the surface, but there’s no doubt for a period of time we ceased being a democracy and became a kind of a ‘doc-docracy,’” he said, in reference to the influence of doctors and medical experts on public policy.
“Now I am all in favour of taking expert advice seriously, but in the end, we’ve got to remain and open, transparent accountable democracy, and I am afraid we weren’t for a couple of years during the pandemic.”
Despite calls for a Royal Commission, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese instead opted for a COVID-19 Response Inquiry to examine federal actions during the pandemic.
Victoria’s Pandemic Restrictions Against Medical Advice: Hunt
Former Health Minister Hunt revealed in his submission that the then-Victorian government’s decision to restrict movement to five kilometre (3.1 miles) radius from home, and implement curfews went against medical advice.In the future, Mr. Hunt recommended states commit “not to take unilateral decisions” against National Cabinet decisions unless there is published and signed medical advice to the contrary at the deputy chief health officer level or above.
World’s Longest Locked Down City
During the pandemic, Melbourne became one of the world’s longest locked-down cities.“Exercise and shopping are still limited to five kilometres from your home. If there’s no shops in your five kilometre radius, you can travel to the ones closest to you. You are also able to travel more than five kilometres to get a vaccine if you need to.”
Mr. Andrews said at the time that the restrictions were hard work for every Victorian, but the rules were in place for a reason.
“Everyone wants this pandemic to be over, but the rules are in place for a reason—we know they work and if we follow them together, we’ll be able to lift them sooner,” he said at the time.
