Page 4022 - Week 13 - Thursday, 2 December 2021
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The select committee was established by the Assembly on 16 September to consider and report to the Assembly on any matter relating to the ACT government’s health and financial response and any other matter in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic as it relates to the ACT. The committee’s purpose was to ensure that ACT government decisions made in response to the pandemic were appropriate, transparent and open to public scrutiny.
At the commencement of the inquiry the committee invited submissions from the public and wrote to a wide range of stakeholders and organisations seeking their views. The committee received a wide range of submissions to the inquiry from individuals, institutions, business organisations and community groups, including the ACT Human Rights Commission, the Tuggeranong Community Council, ANU, UC, the Salvation Army—and the list goes on.
In addition to the committee’s consideration of written submissions across the seven public hearings that were held between September and November this year, we heard evidence from over 50 witnesses from a range of backgrounds, including hospitality, business, education, university, the arts, ACT Policing, and government ministers and officials. The committee received a broad range of feedback in relation to the government’s handling of the August 2021 outbreak in the ACT.
ACT Policing informed the committee of its good cross-jurisdictional engagement with New South Wales police and the ADF and its collaboration in undertaking cross-border checks, as well as business compliance with public health directions here in the ACT.
Businesses were, however, particularly critical of the way the government had treated them throughout the lockdown and raised a number of concerns about how the public health directions were applied, including the unworkable density restrictions, the delay of much-needed support payments, unilateral changes to the eligibility criteria for support, and concerns about the lack of ongoing targeted support. Whilst we know that there are many businesses that are still doing it tough, we also heard some positive aspects, including very regular engagement and consultation.
The committee’s report includes a range of recommendations for the ACT government about the learnings that we, as a community, have all taken away from the August lockdown experience. Moving forward into this new normal where our city learns to live with the virus, I hope that the recommendations and observations contained in the report will be helpful to the government in providing feedback about how we can improve our response to the ongoing pandemic to ensure that every member of our community and every business in our community is supported.
As is the case when you have a three-member committee comprising two members from the coalition government, there were some recommendations that I personally believe should and could have been made stronger and recommendations that should and could have been more explicit. However, I do thank my fellow committee members—Ms Suzanne Orr and Ms Jo Clay—for their willingness to work together on this inquiry, for their insights, their ideas and their genuine interest in making sure
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