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CPA members have largely approved of the federal government’s public health response to COVID-19 but have now called for focus to be placed on economic recovery planning.
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CPAs give government pandemic response tick of approval
23 October 2020
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The member survey by CPA Australia found that 71.5 per cent of respondents rated the federal government’s response to the pandemic as “good” or “very good”, believing border closures were an effective public health measure.
The national and state border closures, however, have come at great economic cost, with CPA members now urging the government to focus on both short-term and long-term recovery measures.
“Respondents ranked public health as the single highest priority, followed by long-term economic recovery planning. Taken together, long-term and short-term economic recovery planning outranked public health as a priority,” said CPA Australia’s general manager of external affairs, Dr Jane Rennie.
“Although a majority of respondents believed that border closures have contributed positively to public health, the vast majority thought they have had a negative impact on the Australian economy.”
While respondents were approving of the federal government’s response, the impact and effectiveness of state government actions saw mixed responses.
In particular, Victoria-based respondents were frustrated by a perceived lack of decision-making consistency and transparency in the state.
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“The prolonged lockdown has undoubtedly contributed to a more pessimistic view of government decision-making in Victoria,” Dr Rennie said.
“Overall optimism regarding business conditions, employment conditions and the economy is not high. Seventy-three per cent of Victorians were not optimistic or only slightly optimistic about business conditions, compared to 60 per cent of other Australians on the same measure.”
Regardless of their state of residence, respondents wanted governments at all levels to show greater national unity when responding to the impacts of the pandemic.
“Over 86 per cent of respondents rated having a unified national approach as ‘very’ or ‘extremely important’ for managing COVID-19,” Dr Rennie said.
“Having multiple state and national approaches was not viewed favourably by respondents and was seen by some as associated with political game playing.”
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