The COVID-19 inquiry finds significant shortfalls in Australia's response to the pandemic.
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00:00And the first lesson from this report is that, like most countries frankly, our
00:07pandemic plans were grossly inadequate for the scale of the challenge that
00:11COVID-19 presented to us. The report makes clear, for example, that our plans
00:16such as they were, included no plan that would deal with the closure of the
00:21international border, which was such a central part of our response. No plan to
00:26deal with quarantine, which was also incredibly important. No plan to deal
00:30with the workforce demands of a pandemic that went on for as long as it did. And
00:36as a result, to use the words of the report, our response to the pandemic was
00:42not as effective as it could have been. And as a result of the lack of plans,
00:47leaders particularly were placed in the invidious position, to use the words of
00:51the report, of having to build the plan while it was flying.