The Albanese government has pledged $251.7m to establish a permanent Centre for Disease Control tasked with ensuring Australia is prepared for the next pandemic, with hopes it will restore trust that was eroded during the Covid-19 pandemic. The announcement follows a damning Covid Inquiry report which found Australians were “unlikely” to accept many of the restrictive and sweeping pandemic measures, with trust in the government at alarming lows due to “heavy-handed” restrictions and a lack of transparency around decision-making.
The independent body, which is currently operating on an interim basis, will be tasked with “stress testing” Australia’s response to health emergencies and future pandemics and will be a source for gathering critical information from trusted sources. While its creation is reliant on legislation slated to be introduced into parliament next year, it has a current commencement date for January 1, 2026, and will be based in Canberra. Health Minister Mark Butler acknowledged Australia’s pandemic preparedness was “grossly inadequate,” which in turn forced decision-makers to “build the plane while it was flying”.
While “understandable,” he said Australia was too slow to move on from the initial “lock everything down” precautionary approach at the beginning of the pandemic which stalled approaches which were more “evidence-based” and “balanced risks and benefits”. The first priority of the CDC would be to establish a �.
