Jordon Steele-John (WA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

COVID-19 was, and continues to be, deeply impactful for the community. Government decisions had deep and significant consequences on the lives of all people in Australia and, for many, including our disability community, the impact of those decisions continues today. We must ensure that governments are better prepared to respond in the future to pandemics and other health emergencies, and the only way to do this is to have a frank and transparent look at the decisions that led us here.

Now, we acknowledge that there is currently an independent inquiry into the government response to COVID-19 that is being undertaken by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. The Greens are eagerly awaiting the recommendations of this inquiry. The Australian Greens have clearly expressed previously that we support the establishment of an inquiry into COVID-19 and that it has the powers of a royal commission. A royal commission would provide the powers to compel; it would ensure states' and territories' decision-making processes and the decisions that they made are reviewed and it would allow our community to share the impact that government decisions had on their lives.

Lastly, the Australian Greens are calling once again for the Australian government to hurry up and meet their election obligation, their election promise, to fully fund the Centre for Disease Control. We need a coordinated and comprehensive approach to managing future pandemics, and a fully funded CDC is a key milestone in achieving that goal.