Establish trust, make good use of data, and cooperate effectively. As nations worldwide grapple with the health, social, and economic challenges posed by the COVID-19 epidemic, Australia views these three concepts as critical to its success in combating the pandemic thus far.
Australia’s effectiveness in controlling the epidemic by practising social separation, following procedures, and wearing P2 masks in Australia might partly be attributed to structural advantages. Continue reading this article to discover more about Australia’s pandemic response.
Developing Trust with Citizens
Citizens must practice excellent cleanliness and physical separation, especially wearing P2 masks in Australia to inhibit the virus’s transmission. In addition, people must trust the government’s policy prescriptions and the facts and information that supports them.
The cohesive response to the epidemic from across the corporate and governmental sectors—at all levels—helped create that confidence in Australia.
Australia saw new and pre-existing leadership teams and judgement bodies come into the same room to debate policy and procedures linked to the COVID-19 problem across the cabinet table and the boardroom.
Collaboration Between State and Federal Administrations
The capacity of Australia’s reaction to organise a cohesive national response while enabling states to preserve autonomy and decision-making powers—and to learn from one another—has been a crucial component of the country’s response.
The newly formed National Cabinet, which was assembled to serve as the leading intergovernmental platform for coordinating the government’s response to the COVID-19 epidemic and facilitating coordination between different levels of government, was a significant component of this.
The Ability to Adapt and Learn
The pandemic response’s urgency necessitated not just quick judgments but also frequent reviewing, and re-evaluation of those decisions as the situation changed and new information or data became available.
Decision-Making Informed by Data
During the crisis, there has been no shortage of data—both businesses and governments have had to deal with a flood of new, often contradictory data.
Australia has chosen a data-driven approach to decision-making, using knowledge and putting in significant effort to filter out the noise and focus on meaningful, reliable facts.
Getting the Right Information
Establishing a dedicated data team to gather data from Commonwealth, state, and territory sources and the private sector and foreign sources was one of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s first critical initiatives.
The team concentrated on the prime minister’s main objectives, directing decision-making and using a dashboard to track the effectiveness of those actions.
Organisations in the private sector also developed real-time data streams, combining typical business and operations measurements with economic shifts brought on by the crisis.
Promoting Cross-Border Collaboration
The crisis drew the corporate and public sectors closer together than has been in Australia.
This meant that business input was available consistently and regularly throughout the emergency response and after that.
Early in the crisis, the government responded rapidly to concerns made by companies, such as easing truck curfews to maintain stable supply chains and food store stock.
Using Expert-Led Decision-Making and Sharing Information
Australia rapidly gathered its top medical and economic experts to advise state and federal policy matters.
The Australian Chief Scientist’s National Contact Tracking Review, published in November, identifies the elements of an ideal system for testing, tracing exposure, and controlling outbreaks, which states and territories may use to evaluate and develop their measures.
