Bill to Establish Inquiry Into COVID-19 Response Fails in Australian Senate

The Australian Senate chamber at Parliament House in Canberra, Australia on Sept. 8, 2022. AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

United Australia Party Senator Ralph Babet, who urged the Senate to establish a Commission of Inquiry into the government response to the COVID-19 pandemic, has criticised Liberal and Labor senators who voted against his motion.

The motion lost 26 votes to 10, with the Liberal Party split over the issue.

If passed, the inquiry would have had the same powers and independence as a royal commission.

“The Senate has overwhelmingly voted to protect COVID-era secrets, to protect incompetence, and protect those who inflicted human rights abuses on their fellow citizens,” Babet said.

“Australians deserve to know the truth about what went on behind closed doors during the pandemic. Civil liberties were trashed, businesses were destroyed, children’s education was ruined, sports were banned, people died alone, lives were lost and families were broken up.

“Is it too much for Australians to ask for governments and the bureaucrats advising them to be held to account for the advice and actions they took during the pandemic? To simply move on, as if nothing ever happened, is an outrage greater than the multiple outrages perpetrated during the pandemic itself,” he added.

Babet accused Australia’s “political class” of denying the public a complete account of what happened.

Senators who supported the motion were Pauline Hanson and Malcolm Roberts (One Nation), Matt Canavan and Ross Cadell (Nationals), Gerard Rennick, Andrew McLachlan, Richard Colbeck and Matt O'Sullivan (Liberals), and David Pocock (Independent).

The Greens and most other Liberals abstained, and all Labor senators voted against the Bill.

It comes after the Senate voted against a bill that aimed to prevent Australians from discrimination based on vaccine status. It failed to pass with 32 votes against and 28 for.

Australia already has an inquiry into the previous Commonwealth government’s COVID-19 response, as well as an ongoing inquiry into excess mortality.

Years of Debate

In 2022, a Labor-led Senate Committee said they supported a royal commission or similar committee to look into Australia’s COVID response.

The issue was debated again in late 2023, when the Senate voted to hold an inquiry to examine what would be an appropriate terms of reference for a COVID-19 Royal Commission.

This was referred to the Legal and Constitutional Affairs References Committee, which has most of its members from the Liberal Party.

It recommended that the federal government establish a “royal commission to examine the Australian response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the consequential impacts on the Australian community” and “encourages the states and territories to pass complementary legislation that would enable them to participate.”

This time, there was a dissenting report from the two Labor members.

They then took the position that the COVID-19 Response Inquiry announced by Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and headed by Robyn Kruk “is being conducted by an independent panel who have extensive experience across public health, social care, government, and economics” and was due to deliver its report by Sept. 30.

They added that recent royal commissions take several years, some up to half a decade, to present a report.

When Albanese first announced the inquiry, Dutton called it a “protection racket” for Labor premiers because its scope did not include state responses.

Speaking in opposition to today’s motion, Ayres noted that Liberal and National senators had expressed support and claimed “a pandemic of kookiness” had overtaken both parties across the country, not just Queensland.

Assistant Minister for Trade Tim Ayres outside Parliament House in Canberra, Australia, on Aug. 19, 2024. AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

Ayres also criticised Dutton’s leadership, saying he needed to “take seriously his responsibility as a political leader, and that is, you don’t back the cranks. You don’t back the conspiracy theorists. You draw a line.”

Meanwhile, Rennick claimed he had lost his Queensland Senate preselection due to his stance on COVID.

“I did lose my Senate preselection because I withheld my vote from a party because [former health minister] Greg Hunt didn’t take my concern seriously about those vaccine injuries. And I’m happy to lose my position in this party over that, because that’s what representing the Australian people is all about, is putting the people first.”

Inquiry Has Been Widely Criticised

The current independent inquiry into the Commonwealth government’s COVID-19 response has been widely criticised as being inadequate.

Its terms of reference explicitly exclude it from examining “any actions taken unilaterally by state and territory governments,” which means lockdowns, state border closures, contact tracing failures and successes, school closures, vaccine mandates, and policing techniques will all be exempt from scrutiny.

In February, Australia’s Human Rights Commissioner Lorraine Finlay said it was not the “best option” to examine the issue.

“The powers of a royal commission to request documents, summons witnesses, take evidence under oath and hold public hearings are essential to ensure that the pandemic response can be reviewed in a comprehensive way,” she said.

The Australian Industry Group and Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry were also critical, as were the Australian Institute for Progress, the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners, and the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation, among others.