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How Covid policies harmed our kids · The Front

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  Speaker 1: From the Australian. Here's what's on the front. I'm Claire Harvey.
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  Speaker 1: It's Wednesday, October thirty. Prime Minister Anthony Albanezi could have
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  Speaker 1: breached the Ministerial Code of Conduct when he asked for
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  Speaker 1: Quantus flight upgrades worth tens of thousands of dollars. The
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  Speaker 1: PM says he hasn't done anything wrong. You can read
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  Speaker 1: that exclusive right now at the Australian dot com. Dorayu,
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  Speaker 1: salmon farmers and conservationists have formed an unlikely union against
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  Speaker 1: Environment Minister Tanya Plibisek. They say she's skirting her job
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  Speaker 1: by delaying a decision on an endangered species found in
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  Speaker 1: Tasmania until after the next election. Australian government's COVID response
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  Speaker 1: impinged on Australian's human rights, damaged the mental health of children,
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  Speaker 1: exposed more women to family violence, and contributed to inflation.
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  Speaker 1: Those other stark findings from a report about how we
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  Speaker 1: can do it better next time. There's a global pandemic today?
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  Speaker 1: How did we get it so wrong? Try not to
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  Speaker 1: shudder as I take you back to twenty twenty. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: I'm back. People were making videos about their sour dough journeys.
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  Speaker 2: And real. Briefly, just want to show you the results
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  Speaker 2: of my first bread from that sour dough that's just
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  Speaker 2: gone wild.
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  Speaker 1: Here parents desperately tried to entertain bored kids.
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  Speaker 2: I'm Jamie and this is your place for yoga stories
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  Speaker 2: and fuck.
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  Speaker 1: The supermarket became a hellscape.
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  Speaker 3: Engines flared at Woolworth's to Laura around seven o'clock this
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  Speaker 3: morning when three women became involved in a toilet paper tussle.
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  Speaker 3: Just what one cat?
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  Speaker 4: No not coldplace.
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  Speaker 1: Positions politicians became even more unbearable than before. You won't
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  Speaker 1: be able to go to the pub because the pub
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  Speaker 1: is shut.
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  Speaker 2: That doesn't mean you can have all your mates around
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  Speaker 2: to home and get on the beers.
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  Speaker 1: And bureaucrats you'd never heard of started bossing you around.
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  Speaker 1: This is a very serious topic, so please don't be
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  Speaker 1: distracted by that. Most of us would prefer never to
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  Speaker 1: think about it again. But now the government's come up
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  Speaker 1: with a report ominously titled Lessons for the Next Crisis.
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  Speaker 2: The striking conclusion I think from this report, though, is
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  Speaker 2: that right now we are arguably worse placed as a
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  Speaker 2: country to deal with a pandemic than we were in
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  Speaker 2: early twenty twenty.
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  Speaker 1: That's Health Minister Mark Butler releasing the report. Labour's creating
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  Speaker 1: a new Center for Disease Control to try and ensure
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  Speaker 1: we do better next time. And there are twenty six recommendations,
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  Speaker 1: including better ways to manage international borders, a national medical stockpile,
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  Speaker 1: clear agreement on how the Commonwealth, States and territories should interact,
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  Speaker 1: and to appoint a chief Pediatrician to ensure children's rights
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  Speaker 1: are not neglected next time around. While Butler sought to
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  Speaker 1: present an air of reasonableness.
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  Speaker 2: It is easy, with the benefit of hard sight to
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  Speaker 2: second guest decisions or criticize decisions that were made in
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  Speaker 2: the heat of the fight against a once in a
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  Speaker 2: century pandemic.
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  Speaker 1: Treasurer Jim Chalmers laid the blame squarely at the feet
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  Speaker 1: of Scott Morrison.
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  Speaker 4: Big decisions were taken and big mistakes were made. Those
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  Speaker 4: mistakes were costly and they were inflationary.
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  Speaker 1: The Treasurer is undertone. Here is the cost of living crisis.
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  Speaker 1: Isn't my look what I had to deal with?
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  Speaker 4: We saw some very good ideas, badly implemented and poorly targeted.
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  Speaker 4: Billions and billions of dollars were wasted. The views that
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  Speaker 4: we made public and clear at the time have been
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  Speaker 4: vindicated by this report.
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  Speaker 1: The report was particularly harsh on state governments, saying border
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  Speaker 1: closures had very negative effects on food security, national supply chains,
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  Speaker 1: and access to health care. We've used a voice actor
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  Speaker 1: to bring you some of the report's starkest findings. The
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  Speaker 1: report says the evidence suggests government responses had a devastating
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  Speaker 1: impact on kids, saying it was.
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  Speaker 3: Told children's rights were deprioritized to support the public health response,
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  Speaker 3: and this had significant long term impacts that outweighed the
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  Speaker 3: risk to children and the wider community.
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  Speaker 1: On people living in nursing homes who weren't allowed to
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  Speaker 1: see their families.
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  Speaker 3: We heard that the restrictions made residents feel like second
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  Speaker 3: class citizens without agency in the final years of their lives.
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  Speaker 1: On disabled people in residential homes.
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  Speaker 3: Denying family and carer's access to these settings during lockdowns
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  Speaker 3: increased the risk of human rights breaches through forced isolation
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  Speaker 3: and reduced basic care.
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  Speaker 1: And on people experiencing homelessness.
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  Speaker 3: Local governments and community organizations moved quickly to implement programs
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  Speaker 3: to house in hotels those sleeping rough These were highly
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  Speaker 3: successful programs that reduced risk for this key cohort through
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  Speaker 3: the pandemic. In addition, measures such as increased social security
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  Speaker 3: payments and eviction and rent rise moratoriums meant that rather
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  Speaker 3: than increasing the number of households living in housing, stress
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  Speaker 3: reduced through the pandemic. However, once supports were withdrawn, many
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  Speaker 3: people were in the same position as before the pandemic,
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  Speaker 3: if not worse off.
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  Speaker 1: Australia's vaccine rollout was famously frustratingly slow. The reports said
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  Speaker 1: that cost lives and hurt the economy.
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  Speaker 3: The additional lockdowns that occurred as a result of these
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  Speaker 3: delays had a direct economic cost estimated at thirty one
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  Speaker 3: billion dollars.
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  Speaker 1: Here's what the reports said about job Keeper.
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  Speaker 3: Some policy decisions, such as excluding temporary migrants and foreign
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  Speaker 3: companies from job Keeper, exacerbated skills shortages and inflationary pressures.
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  Speaker 3: During the economic recovery.
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  Speaker 1: Australia's economy recovered much faster than the government expected, and
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  Speaker 1: the report says that meant supports like job Keeper should
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  Speaker 1: have stopped earlier.
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  Speaker 3: There was excessive fiscal and monetary policy stimulus provided throughout
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  Speaker 3: twenty twenty one and twenty twenty two, especially in the
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  Speaker 3: construction sector. Combined with supply side disruptions. This contributed to
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  Speaker 3: inflationary pressures coming out of the pandemic.
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  Speaker 1: The report said. The home Builder scheme, which gave eligible
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  Speaker 1: Australians a grant of twenty five thousand dollars towards renovations
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  Speaker 1: or new home construction, was an example of a payment
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  Speaker 1: that didn't consider whether the industry could cope.
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  Speaker 3: The home builder program created excess demand in an industry
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  Speaker 3: facing supply constraints. This has been a significant contributor to
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  Speaker 3: inflation coming out of the pandemic, and the program's focus
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  Speaker 3: on renovations rather than new builds added to the general
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  Speaker 3: housing shortages.
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  Speaker 1: Coming up. Why lockdown was particularly dangerous for people at
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  Speaker 1: risk of domestic and family violence. The description by the
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  Speaker 1: three inquiry chairs of what was going on inside some
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  Speaker 1: homes is chilling.
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  Speaker 3: Risk factors associated with family, domestic and sexual violence increased
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  Speaker 3: through the pandemic. Some women were forced into lockdowns with
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  Speaker 3: their abuses. There was an increase in alcohol consumption, which
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  Speaker 3: is linked to higher rates of family violence. One important
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  Speaker 3: risk factor. Financial stress was reduced due to the increases
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  Speaker 3: in income support payments. A significant number of women and
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  Speaker 3: children experienced violence for the first time, and there was
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  Speaker 3: also an increase in the severity of violence during the pandemic.
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  Speaker 1: This report didn't look at decisions made unilaterally by individual
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  Speaker 1: states or territories, like whether or not to shut down
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  Speaker 1: their school systems, but the authors make clear that lengthy
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  Speaker 1: school shutdowns are still affecting kids badly.
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  Speaker 3: While the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee never recommended widespread
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  Speaker 3: school closures, a lack of early and clear communication on
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  Speaker 3: the risks undermined public confidence, particularly for parents with school
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  Speaker 3: aged children, teachers and unions. This created the environment for
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  Speaker 3: subsequent state based decisions to transition to remote learning that
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  Speaker 3: impacted the quality and accessibility of education throughout the pandemic.
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  Speaker 1: You can read our experts analysis of the COVID Inquiry report,
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  Speaker 1: as well as all the nation's best news, sport and
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  Speaker 1: politics right now at Theaustralian dot com AU