One of three experts leading an inquiry into Australia’s Covid response described lockdowns as a “necessary evil” and tweeted angrily about “irresponsible adults” not wearing masks outside.
Angela Jackson, an economist with expertise in gender and inequality, is one of three panelists appointed to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s inquiry into tackling the pandemic, along with a disease expert and a civil servant.
Dr. Jackson — a former senior adviser to ex-Labor Finance Secretary Lindsay Tanner — stood by her previous tweets advocating hard lockdowns.
“They were, in terms of controlling the outbreak, a necessary evil,” she told Daily Mail Australia. “No one enjoyed those lockdowns.”
Dr. Jackson defended the extent of lockdowns in Victoria, which have seen schools closed and Melburnians subject to an 8pm curfew and a travel limit of 5km from home.
“As someone who homeschooled two young children during that period, it was not a positive experience overall, but I recognize that at the time they were part of the response needed to control the pandemic,” she said.
Economist Angela Jackson, a former Labor ministry official, is one of three panellists in Prime Minister Anthony Albanese’s inquiry into the pandemic, which does not examine state and territory government lockdowns
In October 2021, during the 246 days of Melbourne’s lockdown since March 2020, Buenos Aires was overtaken as the most locked-down city in the world. During that time, Dr. Jackson defended rules that required face masks to be worn even outdoors, even though epidemiologists said they weren’t necessary
In 2021, during Melbourne’s extended lockdown, Dr Jackson had demanded face masks be worn outside in a children’s playground.
“To the group of six adults yesterday my husband asked to mask up or leave in the middle of the playground and they refused – this one is for you,” she tweeted.
“Thank you for being irresponsible adults and making children’s lives just a little bit harder.”
Her position on the use of masks contradicted that of infectious disease experts such as Canberra-based epidemiologist Peter Collignon, who pointed out that Covid was spreading overwhelmingly indoors and that the risk of contracting the virus in a public park was small.
Professor Collignon of the Australian National University has been a fierce critic of the crackdown on outdoor gatherings. Earlier this year he told Daily Mail Australia that the govt restricting outdoor exercise ‘was a real mistake’.
“There was a lot of hysteria about people going to beaches and parks, and you could only be outside for an hour a day and parks closed to children,” he said.
The federal inquiry into Covid’s handling has been heavily criticized because lockdown policies were largely imposed by state governments and not Canberra, but those decisions will not be reviewed at all.
“It is not looking at the state government’s unilateral decisions – the message has been conveyed that as a Commonwealth review it is probably best that the states do those reviews themselves,” Dr Jackson told Daily Mail Australia.
“There is a question as to whether state governments would undertake such a review, whether it would be worth doing.”
Early in the pandemic in 2020, Dr. Jackson the Covid policies of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews and NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Twitter – now known as X – in an open conversation with left-wing ad executive Jane Caro.
‘I’m worried too. It just helps me to know that we have been so well served by our leaders (particularly @DanielAndrewsMP and @GladysB) and that they are being well advised,” she said.
“Thanks to that leadership, we did well and I think we can trust them now.”
Even as Melbourne went into another lockdown for the sixth time in August 2021, she continued to defend Mr Andrews and his tough approach, including curfews and restrictions on movement.
“Why don’t we give Red Hot Go two weeks?” she said.
Dr. Jackson, deputy chief of staff to former Labor finance minister Lindsay Tanner, stood by her previous tweets advocating hard lockdowns (pictured is Victoria’s then chief health officer Brett Sutton in August 2020, when Melbourne was in its second lockdown)
Early in the pandemic in 2020, Dr. Jackson Victoria’s Labor Premier Daniel Andrews and his then NSW Liberal counterpart Gladys Berejiklian on Twitter in an open conversation with left-wing ad executive Jane Caro.
‘Because the alternative is another three months of lockdown to keep the numbers under control – before enough of us are vaccinated and we can open without overloading the healthcare system.’
In October 2021, during the 246 days of Melbourne’s lockdown since March 2020, Buenos Aires was overtaken as the most locked down city in the world, but Victoria still had the highest number of Covid deaths of any state.
While the inquiry will not examine the core issue of the Covid response – the severe curtailment of civil liberties and crushing of small businesses by the state government’s policies – it could investigate former Prime Minister Scott Morrison’s ban on Australians traveling for holidays to travel abroad.
“Closing borders is certainly part of the mandate and that would be part of the order,” Dr Jackson told Daily Mail Australia.
But by the time Melbourne went into lockdown again in August 2021, she continued to defend Mr Andrews and his tough approach, including curfews and restrictions on movement, for a sixth time.
Dr. Jackson said the investigation was intended to learn from the mistakes of the Covid pandemic, even if it was limited to federal government policy.
“Including the policy decisions that were made, but also the processes that contributed to them,” she said.
Dr. Jackson is on the panel with former NSW Health director-general Robyn Kruk and current Deakin University professor of epidemiology, Professor Catherine Bennett.