We acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians of the lands on which we live and pay our deep respects to Indigenous Elders past, present, and emerging. Always was, always will be, Aboriginal land.

URGENT CALL FOR AN INDEPENDENT INQUIRY OR ROYAL COMMISSION INTO THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNMENT COVID-19 PANDEMIC RESPONSE 

#auspandemicinquiry 

Globally, individual lives of loved ones continue to be tragically lost in the COVID-19 pandemic and others are sadly permanently and temporarily affected and restricted. We acknowledge and pay our deep respects to all those who have died during the pandemic, the loved ones who are left grieving, those who have had their lives and livelihoods restricted, frontline workers, and communities who have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Australia is, and has been, experiencing an appalling loss of lives. Australians are living with the debilitating effects of personal and collective grief which so far, is disenfranchised by the actions of the current government.

We are a group of people in Australia who tragically lost loved ones in the pandemic. We have done our research and distilled findings into the following key points, identifying some of the areas where the government failed to lead the way in protecting Australians during the global COVID-19 pandemic of 2019 – 2022. 

We are voicing an urgent call for an independent inquiry or royal commission, thoroughly investigating the Australian government’s COVID-19 pandemic response including analysis of decision-making and communication approaches into these areas of response, covering but not limited to:

• Delayed and limited government choices of vaccine procurement for Australia, subsequent supply issues, vaccine ‘strollout’, inequities in access to vaccine doses, the ignoring of international evidence, expert advice and official recommendations. 
• Mis-management of COVID-19 isolation quarantine facilities both for international and local travellers.
• Lack of support for the disability sector, including those with a disability being treated like second-class citizens, disrupted phases of the vaccine rollout for those experiencing a disability, and individuals residing in disability housing being left highly vulnerable to infection with COVID-19.
• Failing elderly, vulnerable Australians, stripping them of dignity, with 742 tragic deaths in aged care homes in the first six weeks of 2022 as one example of many throughout the pandemic. 
• We deplore the lack of recognition for people who have tragically died in the global COVID-19 pandemic due to COVID-19, vaccines, suicide, and other causes directly linked to the government pandemic response and global pandemic. Including, the failure of government to recognise and acknowledge confirmed serious adverse reactions from one type of COVID-19 vaccine which tragically caused the deaths of 11 people in Australia. We are not 'anti-vax'.

Additionally, we call on the inquiry or royal commission to investigate the following:

• Lack of preparedness for a global pandemic which experts warned would likely happen.
• Lack of planning, forward thinking and preparation throughout 2019 – 2022 in the global COVID-19 pandemic.
• Lack of planning for soaring hospital admissions due to COVID-19.
• Chain of decision-making in government pandemic response that caused needless and preventable deaths.
• Chaotic rollout of vaccines in aged care facilities, leaving elderly residents and staff vulnerable.
• Politicisation of medical information and health advice.
• Approaches to repetitive messaging including the government and media’s use of blanket health advice and slogans.
• Government authored creation of ‘potential’ and ‘uncertain’ data tables to enable interpretation of risk-benefit assessment to curtain vaccine supply issues. 
• Failure of government to communicate serious, vital information regarding individual health risks based on age and gender associated with the government’s choice of vaccines. 
• Advertisement campaigns for vaccines aimed at younger Australians when they could not access a vaccine suitable for their age group due to vaccine rollout failures.
• Lack of accountability for inconsistencies in approaches to gaining ‘informed consent’ and gaslighting the Australian public in regards to responsibility for government response failures.
• Communication of incomparable, inapplicable risk metaphors regarding a specific type of COVID-19 vaccine. Using fearmongering language in messaging to pressure Australians to meet vaccine targets which were low due to government failures, by comparing two independent events; risk of death from confirmed cases of COVID-19 (a transmissable virus) to risk of death from serious adverse reactions to one type of COVID-19 vaccine (human-made, administered by government). 
• Government mandated lockdowns.
• Discrimination against those who died and dismissing individual deaths by reporting humans only as statistics, reporting statistics in a positive light, and minimising the value of individual lives lost by stating that particularly, if they were elderly, or had underlying health conditions, that they ‘would have died anyway’.
• Decisions around mask mandates and other precautionary measures to reduce transmission of COVID-19.
• Failure to supply an adequate surge workforce for aged care and chronic understaffing of hospitals. Covid-positive nurses asked to attend hospital shifts due to staffing shortages. 
• Lack of support for frontline healthcare workers.
• Lack of supply of appropriate PPE for aged care and healthcare workers.
• Lack of supply of rapid antigen tests, ignoring advice from experts to procure supplies and initially in an outbreak, no way for people to record positive results so no way to contact trace cases.
• Lack of support for immunocompromised people in government-led advice about the pandemic, with the Prime Minister making a [general] statement in December 2021: “If you feel uncomfortable about going out in other public spaces, well, you can choose to stay home,” urging people to take ‘personal responsibility’ and: "If you're feeling uncertain, then it's not compulsory to go out. It's not compulsory not to wear a mask either."
• Lack of follow-up, support, or funding for grief counselling and mental health support from the government.
• Lack of commitment to invest in research for many areas which would put Australia in an informed position to respond to future pandemics.
• Three years into the pandemic, the current government again, provisionally approved COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca/Vaxzevria for anyone over the age of 18, failing to implement age-limits, ignoring expert advice and international data on risks of fatalities from serious adverse reactions which have tragically caused 78 deaths in the UK, 11 in Australia and more internationally. We acknowledge the importance of [safe] vaccines [suitable for specific age groups] in responding to the pandemic.

We are not affiliated with any group, political party, charity, or religious organisation. However, we note that in Australia, some politicians and upcoming election candidates have started to discuss the possibility of an inquiry or royal commission into the government’s pandemic response. 

It’s a start, but we ask our communities and representatives at all levels of government to make it a top priority by joining our urgent call.

Australians, along with the world, are grieving now…

and we need the current government’s reckless, chaotic, short-sighted actions to be held to account, now. We also need the government to show us through the independent inquiry or royal commission that they have learned the lessons, for next time. We request that all findings of the independent inquiry or royal commission be transparently communicated to the public.

We need more actions like that of Susan Templeman, Member for Macquarie, who on 23rd November 2021, spoke in Australian parliament on behalf of a Blue Mountains family whose loved one died as a result of taking the AstraZeneca vaccine and was one of [now] eleven tragic deaths the TGA reports as linked to AstraZeneca:

Hansard transcript, Susan Templeman, Member for Macquarie:

“COVID-19: Thrombosis with thrombocytopenia syndrome 

Ms TEMPLEMAN (Macquarie) (16:06): What they'd like is for [their loved one’s] death and that of others to be recognised in parliament. They'd like a public memorial acknowledging those who died during the pandemic, both as a result of the disease and of the vaccines and public recognition at major gatherings in the form of a minute's silence. They'd like a vaccine compensation scheme that proactively reaches out to people who've lost a family member, one with specific time frames, relying on an expert legal and medical panel that considers impact statements from family members and treats them generously. What they want is reasonable. They also want to see the Prime Minister acknowledge those who have died or been disabled through the vaccination program. They want recognition by the Prime Minister of what these people have experienced and what their families have lost. They have lost this for the sake of the rest of the community.”

We will not forget what happened, no matter how many media pivots and distractions the current government reactively refocuses on.

Australians deserve a thorough and independent investigation into the government failures which caused many preventable deaths in the global COVID-19 pandemic of 2019 – 2022. 

#auspandemicinquiry