Labor’s failure to investigate States over COVID-19 school closures fails every Australian…
The
Albanese Government’s failure to conduct a proper inquiry into school closures
and other COVID-19 decisions made unilaterally by the States and Territories
fails every Australian family.
Labor’s
‘Clayton’s inquiry’ puts the Prime Minister’s political interests ahead of
Australia’s national interest.
The
closure of schools which caused such damage to young Australians, particularly
in Victoria, must be front and centre of any inquiry.
This
Labor Government went to the last election on a platform of transparency, yet
any inquiry which does not investigate the actions of the States is further
proof that Prime Minister Albanese is running a protection racket for his Labor
Premier mates.
Families
in Melbourne, the most locked-down city in the world, are still suffering from
the consequences of Premier Andrews’ decisions to close schools for such long
periods which caused widespread harm to the learning, development and mental
health of children.
From
the shooting of protestors with rubber bullets to the overnight curfew to the
closure of borders, workplaces, playgrounds and schools, Victorians
endured some of the most extreme pandemic restrictions of any in the
world.
At the
beginning of the pandemic in Australia, the Australian Health Protection
Principal Committee, supported by the Coalition Government, advised that
schools were safe and should remain open.
The
independent Fault Lines report,
an independent review into Australia’s response to COVID-19, recommended that
schools should have stayed open.
It is
critical that Australians learn the lessons of the pandemic and any inquiry
without proper powers to engage the States is nothing more than an
anti-Coalition witch hunt.