COVID inquiry
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Mental health
COVID left us poorer, sicker and with a big financial headache, inquiry told
Businesses, unions, health experts and the education sector say Australia needs to prepare for future pandemics to avoid repeating mistakes that are still being felt in some parts of the nation.
- by Shane Wright
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Victorian Parliament
Anguish for families as hotel quarantine case collapses, ‘no one held accountable’
No one will be held criminally responsible for a COVID-19 outbreak from hotel quarantine that led to the death of 768 people and one of the world’s longest lockdowns.
- by Alex Crowe, David Estcourt and Aisha Dow
Perth company, former boss cop hefty fines for ‘COVID killer’ sanitiser claims
Perth-based natural wellness company Holista CollTech and its chief have been hit with $2 million in fines for falsely claiming its plant-based hand sanitiser killed COVID-19 in the early days of the pandemic.
- by Jesinta Burton
Teenagers the biggest losers of COVID-era school closures
In the third and final part of this series, experts say the impact of COVID-era school closures on a generation of students is still unclear.
- by Lucy Carroll and Jordan Baker
Violence, anxiety in students as young as 5: Marks of the COVID generation
In part two of this series, experts discuss reports of students struggling and teachers being physically attacked in the aftermath of school closures during the pandemic.
- by Jordan Baker and Lucy Carroll
‘We made the wrong decisions’: COVID-era mass school closures condemned
Closing Sydney’s schools was one of the biggest – and most controversial – calls made during the pandemic. But was it really necessary?
- by Jordan Baker and Lucy Carroll
Introducing Deloitte, a poster child for the cringe era
There’s cringeworthy content, then there’s the dross that this consultancy giant served up to its staff the other day.
- by Madeleine Heffernan and Kishor Napier-Raman
Aggressive measures in COVID early years credited for saving thousands of lives
The Burnet Institute says global COVID-19 deaths data underscores Australia’s success in saving lives in the first two years of the pandemic, but the “living with COVID” approach brought an 18-fold increase in the death rate.
- by Lisa Visentin
Exclusive
Coronavirus pandemic
‘People deserve to have stories told’: Human rights chief urges wider COVID review
Lawyers who have spent years trying to overturn unlawful fines issued during the pandemic also said the federal government had taken a “nothing to see here” approach.
- by Natassia Chrysanthos
Nothing to prevent states helping COVID inquiry: Chalmers
The federal treasurer said he did not accept claims the review was a “light touch” exercise that should have been set up to investigate all aspects of the response.
- by David Crowe
Opinion
Opinion
Most extraordinary health crisis being answered with most routine politics
The new federal inquiry into the COVID-19 pandemic is none of the things Prime Minister Anthony Albanese claimed for it – deep, thorough and independent.
- by David Crowe