Australians were shocked when the news of the potential enormity of the coronavirus pandemic struck in early 2020. Many were also terrified, justifiably concerned about the impact of the virus and its particularly high mortality rate amongst the elderly. Mercifully, the impact of the virus on children was relatively benign but there wasn’t a family that didn’t have elderly relatives that didn’t look at the one in six mortality rates for older people and pray they would not be infected.
The response of the media to the pandemic was hysterical and frankly irresponsible. Every day brought a body count of fresh Covid deaths, new infections, and stories about outbreaks. It was a drip feed of loss, tragedy, and outrage. Media hysteria drove panic buying that emptied supermarkets around the country after Australians feared a breakdown in supply chains. A significant portion of the population seriously believed society would begin to disintegrate around them and it would be every man for themselves.
In such a febrile environment, the response of our political class was not measured, assured, or thoughtful. Our politicians, on both sides, stoked the fear, genuflected to it, and morphed it into a broad range of heavily intrusive policy measures purportedly based on fully disclosed health advice. These interventions were unprecedented and highly damaging to jobs, economic activity while curtailing fundamental personal freedoms. Transparency around these decision-making processes was limited and dissenting voices were ruthlessly pilloried and shut down.
The political class exists downstream of the media and the pandemic brought home just how heavily they dominate policy narratives in our corridors of power and the resulting policy interventions imposed by our politicians. Without any capacity to counter, clarify, or cauterise facile and dangerous media narratives, our weak-willed, spineless political class folded like lawn chairs, granting a so-called social licence to the most horrific violations of our fundamental rights.
Politicians are not interested in doing what is right, good, or best for the country. The closer they come to power, the worse this becomes due to the pernicious influence of inexpert journalists and the editors that sign off on their copy.
Covid continues to affect the health of Australians despite a myriad of government interventions over the last three years. Australia’s average daily case numbers in mid-March were 3,165, with 1,306 affecting the people of New South Wales. There were 29 NSW reported deaths in one week in March, so this disease is still of great concern and my heart goes out to the families of those who have died.
These statistics and the ongoing spread of a potpourri of variants raises the question of whether the measures that governments in Australia applied were effective either to protect the health of Australians or their economic welfare.
This elemental question must be answered following a detailed analysis of the cost of a number of factors: the border closures, the mandatory testing, forced lockdowns, and the restriction of personal movements that separated family and friends.
The taking away of people’s livelihoods when they failed to comply with mandated vaccinations must be investigated. The mental health costs for citizens and small business people who lost their livelihoods must be properly evaluated. What strategies have worked and what failed must be objectively assessed.
The mental health effects have been alarming. One statistic alone shows the impact on Australians of government-imposed restrictions. From March 16, 2020 to July 24, 2022, 107 million Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme mental health-related prescriptions were dispatched nationally. 107 million! The writing of these prescriptions peaked when restrictions were first introduced. The impact on Australians of vaccine-induced injuries and disease also needs to be studied and assessed.
For these reasons and to ensure that future policies relating to the management of Covid are fair and proportionate, the Liberal Democrat party proposes a Royal Commission into Australia’s response to the disease. The terms of reference must encompass all of the issues I have discussed and chart a course for a future in which the proper policy settings are in place. The crippling effects on freedom and Australians’ mental health must never be tolerated again.
Royal Commissions have broad powers to hold public hearings, call witnesses under oath and compel evidence, this is needed to get to the truth about Covid policies. Cynicism, much of it understandable, about mere government inquiries necessitates the instigation of a Royal Commission with its enhanced independence and powerful capacities to elicit key policy detail. I can understand why politicians do not relish the prospect but like Jefferson, ‘There is no truth existing that I fear or would wish unknown to the whole world.’ We demand answers, and we demand them now.
Burchell Wilson is the Liberal Democrats candidate for Bathurst
