Yesterday, the new federal health minister, Mark Butler, announced a government inquiry with Jane Halton in charge into the Australian Government covid-19 vaccine contracts, pricing and existing supplies of vaccines. This inquiry, he advised, will be a forward looking review: a “where to from here” examination of what will be needed in the next 12-18 months including ‘likely developments in vaccines this year and into 2023’ (abc.net.au 30/6/22). The inquiry will be undertaken very soon and report quickly rather than referencing the last two years of the country’s pandemic response. However, the Minister was quick not to rule out a more fulsome examination such as a Royal Commission at a later date, although no timeframe was announced.

I note two things about this announcement, 1) the choice of Jane Halton as the head of the inquiry, and 2) what I hope is not a deliberate attempt to refocus attention away from what Labor had promised during the election: the release of “National Cabinet” documents and the move away from the secrecy provisions used by Scott Morrison in his dealings with the State Premiers and Chief Ministers – and which Anthony Albanese advised in a press conference after his first “National Cabinet” meeting two Friday’s ago, that the Commonwealth had not rescinded the confidentiality provisions. According to the Guardian, Mr Albanese refused to answer questions on the matter (The Guardian, 17/6/22).

To the second point first, and what should be of the utmost importance, I will only say that were a Royal Commission, or inquiry of similar standing, to be announced then all items of evidence should be examined, including everything that transpired between the previous Coalition Government through its leader, the former Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, his Covid “Supremo” Lieutenant General John Frewin and the Premiers and Chief Ministers much of which originated inside the “National Cabinet”. These items of evidence should include all “National Cabinet” documents for the period of the National Pandemic Response, without which the country can never hope to truly learn from these last two years.

On the first point, when asked why the Dept of Health would not carry out the inquiry, according to the ABC, Butler ‘…defended the decision to have the review done by Ms Halton and not the health department, saying he did not think it was out of the ordinary that the new government would want an independent opinion on deals done while it was in opposition.’

I make no inference about the choice of Jane Halton – Mr Butler himself has noted her independence – to undertake this review, simply I refer to Ms Halton’s Wikipedia page, which notes her previous position in government as departmental head of the Australian Department of Finance (as well as in many other significant positions in government over the years), which she resigned from in October, 2016. Subsequent to her resignation, and after joining a couple of boards (ANZ Bank and Vault Systems), she became the chair of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations.

From Wikipedia: (quote) ‘The Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) is a foundation that takes donations from public, private, philanthropic, and civil society organisations, to finance independent research projects to develop vaccines against emerging infectious diseases (EID).[4][5]

CEPI is focused on the World Health Organization’s (WHO) “blueprint priority diseases”, which include: the Middle East respiratory syndrome-related coronavirus (MERS-CoV), the Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the Nipah virus, the Lassa fever virus, and the Rift Valley fever virus, as well as the Chikungunya virus and the hypothetical, unknown pathogen “Disease X”.[6][5] CEPI investment also requires “equitable access” to the vaccines during outbreaks, although subsequent CEPI policy changes may have compromised this criterion.[7]

CEPI was conceived in 2015 and formally launched in 2017 at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. It was co-founded and co-funded with US$460 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Wellcome Trust,[3] and the governments of India and Norway, and was later joined by the European Union (2019) and the United Kingdom (2020).[3][5] CEPI is headquartered in Oslo, Norway.[4]…

CEPI was formally launched at the 2017 WEF in Davos, with an initial investment of US$460 million by a consortium that included the governments of Norway, Japan, and Germany, The Wellcome Trust, and the Gates Foundation;[10][3] India joined a short time afterwards.[11][12] In a launch interview with the Financial Times (FT), Gates said that a key goal was to reduce the time to develop vaccines from 10 years to less than 12 months.[3]…

In 2020, CEPI was identified by several media outlets as a “key player in the race to develop a vaccine” for coronavirus disease 2019.[4][19][15]’ (end of quote)

Australia, Belgium, Canada and the UK have also contributed funding. Total funding by February 2020, according to Bloomberg News, (via Wikipedia) was US$760 million.