Dutton claims Albanese is being ‘rolled’ by Labor premiers by not holding royal commission into COVID-19 pandemic

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has claimed Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is being “rolled” by the Labor premiers in Queensland and Victoria, after not holding a royal commission into the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Mr Dutton spoke at a media conference on Thursday after the Prime Minister confirmed there will be an independent inquiry into Australia’s response to COVID-19.

The probe, led by a panel of three experts, will look into how the Commonwealth responded to pandemic, but not the actions taken by individual states and territories. 

This means strategies used to respond to COVID-19, like lockdowns and border closures – the conditions of which were particularly strict in Victoria and Queensland – will not be thoroughly examined. 

The Prime Minister said on Thursday he believed a royal commission was unnecessary, despite flagging it as an option while in opposition.

Before the May 2022 election, Mr Albanese said there needed to be some type of investigation into the nation’s response to COVID-19. 

“It is beyond doubt that you will need an assessment. Whether that be a royal commission or some form of inquiry, that will need to happen,” he said at the time. 

Mr Dutton said Mr Albanese had made a “mockery of his own words”.

“It was a solemn promise the Prime Minister made to the Australian people and it’s his latest and one of the most significant broken promises seen from the Prime Minister since his election,” he said.

“There is a real trust issue between the Prime Minister and the Australian people.”

The Opposition Leader took aim at the revelation the inquiry would not focus on all levels of government, declaring Australia needed to learn from its mistakes through the probe.

“If we don’t learn the lessons of what happened during the course of COVID, good and bad, by every level of government, how do we expect to go into the next pandemic not understanding what had happened in the previous one?” he said.

“It doesn’t make any sense.

“And it’s clear that either the Prime Minister’s been rolled here by (Premier of Victoria) Daniel Andrews and the Premier of Queensland (Annastacia Palaszczuk), or the Prime Minister is just happy to make a mockery of his own words before the election.”

Asked if he believed it would be inappropriate for a federal inquiry to scrutinise individual state and territory decisions, Mr Dutton said an investigation should cover all states and the Commonwealth.

“This protection racket for Daniel Andrews and Annastacia Palaszczuk demonstrates that Daniel Andrews and Premier Palaszczuk have a lot to keep from the Australian public,” he said.

“If there’s nothing to hide here, then why not let the sun shine in?”

The inquiry’s final report into the handing of the pandemic, which largely affected the country in 2020 and 2021, is expected to be completed by the end of September next year. 

“I think there will be literally thousands of families out there who lost loved ones during the course of COVID who listened to, and probably voted for, the Prime Minister based on his promise for a proper, thorough investigation inquiry involving the Commonwealth and the states around the decisions made over the course of COVID,” Mr Dutton said. 

Shadow health minister Anne Ruston said it was important to look into all aspects of the pandemic, arguing many of the decisions that impacted Australians the most were made by states and territories. 

“Whether that be the lockdowns, border closures, mandates and the like, which all had a very significant impact on Australians were unilaterally there domain of state and territory governments,” she said at the media conference. 

“Yet today we see in the terms of reference from this inquiry that those issues and those decision have been explicitly removed from the scope of this inquiry.”

Mr Albanese said the inquiry will help determine areas to improve on in the future in order for Australia to be more vigilant for major events like the pandemic.

“I think Australians will want it to be concentrated on what can we do better in the future? How do we get better preparedness?” he said earlier on Thursday. 

He highlighted the need to review the nation’s response to the pandemic while in opposition, believing the inquiry will tick off one of his pre-election commitments.