(Image: AAP/Kelly Barnes)

Along with a federal integrity commission, a judicial commission to investigate complaints against judges and a royal commission into robodebt, Labor is likely to launch a royal commission into COVID-19, as recommended in a report by the COVID-19 Senate committee which is led by Labor Senator Katy Gallagher. 

The report identified five major failures in the government’s response: failure to plan, failure to take responsibility, failure to get it right, lack of transparency and lack of accountability. It made 19 recommendations. 

The government has yet to announce plans for a royal commission but Labor sources tell Crikey a decision could be made once cabinet is sworn in — and there are plenty of reasons to do so, especially as COVID infections keep ticking up. Here are a few:

COVID deaths are surging 

COVID has all but fallen out of the news cycle — but the virus isn’t going anywhere. Australia has more than 330,000 active cases and 101 people in ICU. More than 8300 people have died with or from the virus since the start of the pandemic. Most died this year. 

Nearly a third of Australians have not had their booster dose. Yesterday the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation expanded eligibility criteria so that another 1.5 million Australians could get access to a fourth dose. 

New research has also shown that catching one strain of COVID does little to protect against other strains — especially among the unvaccinated. 

The health system is struggling 

State premiers are pushing for an overhaul of Australia’s health system, arguing the pandemic has highlighted just how strained it is.

Ambulance ramping is a major problem. The Australian Medical Association has found that every state and territory is failing to meet its performance targets for the time it takes get people into the emergency department. There’s a shortage of midwives in Victoria, GPs in regional Australia, and nurses in hospitals across the country.  

The federal government contributes to 45% of hospital funding, with a 6.5% annual growth cap. There are calls to increase this to 50% and abolish the cap. 

The committee pushed for a pandemic workforce strategy to support and protect health, aged care and other essential frontline staff. 

We don’t know what we don’t know

Much of the pandemic response happened behind closed doors. Australia’s flash new national cabinet allowed decisions to be made faster — but also hindered scrutiny, with cabinet records and notebooks exempt from freedom of information laws.

Decisions were poorly communicated and the government refused to release basic facts and figures, like how many Pfizer vaccine doses were available. The Senate committee found this undermined public and state and territory governments’ trust in the body.

Members of the National COVID-19 Coordination Commission were handpicked by Morrison — with zero information about the criteria for doing so. It released no public work, despite costing Australians $6.5 million. 

There have been ongoing calls for the health advice that guided policy on freedom and safety to be released. It was revealed last year that former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian ignored health advice to lockdown greater Sydney, instead restricting movements in Sydney’s west and south-west. 

If these documents are made public, journalists and epidemiologists will be able to track where Australia went wrong — and where politics trumped health advice.