Public Health Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic in Australia: The Role of the Morrison Government

Abstract

The Australian Commonwealth government has four health-related responsibilities during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic: to provide national leadership; to manage external borders; to protect residents of residential aged care facilities; and to approve, procure and roll-out tests and vaccines. State governments are responsible for determining what public health measures are appropriate and implementing them—including managing the border quarantine arrangements and the testing, tracing, and isolation regime—and managing the hospital response. This paper analyses the national government’s response to the pandemic and discusses why it has attracted a thesaurus of negative adjectives.