Page 10 - Luce 2020

P oint of View

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Borders weren’t the only big issue where the states went Not only were experts listened to – they were leaned on
their own ways, which wasn’t the federal government’s publicly and conspicuously. Murphy appeared regularly
way. Morrison always wanted schools kept open, but at Morrison’s news conferences; when he moved on to
other leaders were notably more cautious. become Secretary of the Health Department, Acting Chief
Medical Officer Paul Kelly was there (although Murphy was
There is no doubt the national cabinet at times looked brought in on some major occasions).
ragged, against the background of infighting between
the federal government and Queensland and WA, verbal The state premiers also paraded their health officials, and –
barbs between the NSW and Queensland premiers, and especially when they were under pressure over borders or
Canberra’s anger at the botches that led to Victoria’s hardship cases – they shifted responsibility by saying they
second wave. were doing what the health officials said. This put the health
officials into a political role, or certainly under political
But taking the helicopter view, the national cabinet was pressure.
an inspired decision for a structure that operated well.
Indeed, as time went on the experts found themselves
Flushed with its success, Morrison decided to make increasingly buffeted in the political fray. This was especially
it permanent, replacing the old Council of Australian so with Victorian Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton. He, like
Governments (COAG), which suffered from bureaucratic Murphy, suddenly became a household name.
constipation. Whether the new arrangement will work so
effectively in a non-crisis situation remains to be seen. In Sutton’s case, there was an extraordinary polarisation.
He became something of a cult figure – there was (to his
Much of Australia’s success (as of the time of writing) in embarrassment) a range of products with his image on them.
handling the crisis was due to governments taking the But critics – especially those from the right, who believed
advice of experts. the health crisis was exaggerated and the economic price of
restrictions wasn’t being given enough attention – attacked
Recent years have been tough for experts. They’ve him and some other health officials, notably Queensland’s
become victims of culture wars, climate wars and the like. Jeannette Young.
But during the pandemic in Australia, experts came into
their own, whether their fields were health or economics. The elevation of expertise in the health area was also
complicated by differences among experts (taking in those
On the advice of the then Commonwealth Chief Medical outside officialdom) about what particular responses
Officer, Brendan Murphy, Australia was off to a quick should be.
start in the battle against the coronavirus, declaring it a
pandemic ahead of the World Health Organisation. As with how the national cabinet will pan out in the
On the advice of Treasury, the Morrison government long term, so with the respect for experts. Whether
put in place massive financial help to sustain – as much the experience of COVID-19 will promote the cause
as could be done – businesses and workers hit by the of evidence-based policy making in the future – that’s
economic collapse. This injected large-scale spending something we will have to wait to see. We can just
power into the economy, and limited the misery. hope so.

10 LUCE Number 19 2020