The Echidna: Why someone should shoulder blame for sluggish COVID response

It started with popcorn. My wife and I, our triple-vaccinated bodies racked with aches and fevers, were locked in a nasty duel with COVID. Restless and irritable, we'd stripped the sweat-soaked sheets from our bed and dragged ourselves to the couch, confident a salty, buttery snack might ease our misery.

Popcorn has the weirdly addictive texture of soft cardboard at the best of times. But this was acrid and chalky. It tasted like charcoal, with a hint of singed hair and a dollop of wet earth.

"Reminds me of your mother's cooking," I told my wife. "I think there's something wrong with my taste."

"You don't say, Einstein," she snarled. "You've been humming along to Barry Manilow songs all morning."

By that night flavour and smell had completely abandoned us. Sweet or sour, it didn't matter. The act of eating became a chore. Drowning our sorrows offered no compensation, either. Our stash of alcohol had turned to vinegar, with strong notes of petrol.

Six weeks later and the world remains a jumble of mystifying flavours and confusing scents dominated by an ever-present bouquet of mouldering socks and stale armpits last encountered when my son still lived at home.

(One small bonus: neither of us has had to don the gas mask while sitting near The Dog, whose powerful emissions regularly prompt warning notices from the Environment Protection Agency).

So we're lucky. Our battle with coronavirus did not result in an extended hospital stay. Our ongoing symptoms are nothing compared to the lung scarring and exhaustion suffered by many with long COVID. And, unlike more than 15,000 other families in this country, we are not mourning the death of a loved one.

But the time of reckoning nears. Governments have signalled they believe the pandemic is all but over by abandoning self-isolation and infection reporting rules. Surely, then, a royal commission into Australia's handling of the pandemic - long-promised by Anthony Albanese - can't be far behind.

Another lengthy royal commission that will enrich the lawyers but not the nation, unearthing things we already knew or suspected? Not if it is given the powers it deserves. Such an inquiry could become the most insightful investigation ever staged into how power is truly wielded in this country.

This week a report commissioned by three philanthropic organisations dubbed "Fault Lines" revealed an unsurprising number of problems with our response to the pandemic. Led by Peter Shergold, a former head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, it found that "political opportunism" and "an absence of transparency and inclusion" led to draconian border closures, lockdowns and the inhumane treatment of so many in residential aged care.

How can we afford not to have a royal commission into an event that ended - and upended - so many lives? The pandemic triggered one of the greatest battles between science and superstition since heretics were burned at the stake for insisting the earth orbits the sun. From the way we work to the way we interact (who still doesn't hold their breath when someone brushes past them at the supermarket?), COVID has been a generation-defining event.

Someone, surely, has to ultimately answer for the gross neglect of those in residential aged care, where more than 25 per cent of our COVID-related deaths have occurred.

Someone must shoulder the blame for the inept bungling that led to the sluggish rollout of vaccines.

Someone has to take responsibility for allowing conga lines of Hollywood identities to isolate and vacation in Byron Bay while Australian families stranded overseas were refused entry to visit dying relatives.

And someone we remember all too well needs to be held to account for seizing control of five ministries behind the back of his colleagues in one of the most secretive grabs for power in this country's history.

The Prime Minister is an enthusiastic supporter of greater government transparency. So he keeps telling us. But does he have the willingness to call a royal commission that would expose not just the foibles and megalomaniac tendencies of some of our political leaders, but our fractured and antiquated system of federation?

Yes, Australia fared better in the pandemic than many Western nations, although we should not underestimate the advantage bestowed on us by our physical isolation from the rest of the world. And while good, even heroic, deeds were performed by many, there remains a lingering stench surrounding much of our handling of COVID.

Why? Because that whiff of political expediency and the swamp-like odour that clings to those lusting after power never goes away.

Even I can smell it.

HAVE YOUR SAY: What were your experiences with COVID? Have you avoided it? Would you support a royal commission into the pandemic? And is it time to review the way our federation is structured? Email us: echidna@theechidna.com.au

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IN CASE YOU MISSED IT:

THEY SAID IT: "Power based on love is a thousand times more effective and permanent then the one derived from fear of punishment." - Mahatma Gandhi

YOU SAID IT: Disaster fatigue, malevolent lawns and rain, rain and more rain.

Bede says, "The world is on 1 degree of warming now and if I look about, I think they may have a point. If we hit +1.5C within 10 years (yep, 2030 - apparently 60 per cent probability, from memory) and +2C a few years later (hockey-stick...), then what will the weather look like? Monikers like 'once in a century' for floods and fires will be exceeded every year. This is the new normal, but only until it gets a lot worse. Next year. Then the first-borns, etc. It's up to each of us to do our darnedest in every possible way to stop this spiral into extinction of our fellow humans, not to mention many other species. (The locusts will be fine.)"

Sandra asks, "Where are the climate change deniers? Flooded perhaps. I have an old goldfield mineshaft nearby, never had water in it since I lived here 1993, 10 metres deep and now 6 metres of water in it. No runoff as it is on a watershed. Echidnas love swimming so they will survive."

Janet says she's not concerned about malevolent lawns and potholes. "These are problems I can manage. But I'm very concerned about climate change. I'm concerned that our farmers will have problems growing grains and tree crops. I'm concerned about how our changing climate affects our unique wildlife, including echidnas. I'm appalled that our government is going to waste money supporting new gas projects. Fossil fuel extraction alone causes so much methane to be released into the atmosphere. That really ramps up climate change. Feel better now after sharing that. Might get out the electric lawn mower. But first, I'll ring up a federal minister about no new gas. Couldn't get through yesterday."

Paul says, "I start to lose sympathy when people and businesses rebuild in exactly the same spot where they have been flooded - in some cases several times - and then complain when they get flooded again. It is particularly irritating when they receive taxpayer money to do so, and when everyone's insurance premiums go up to cover it. With the recent flood events, we should have a very good knowledge of where the dry ground is - for pity's sake build there, it's not going to get any better with climate change. On the plus side, I've never heard of a bumper dryland crop in a drought year - rain ultimately provides us food and water, the amount lost in floods is often small compared to the increases in yields as well as the benefits to water supply and food production over following months and years." One silver lining, I guess.