Reminding us of what Australia did not have, a federal-state national royal commission into all nation's total responses to the pandemic, is the just released second report by the United Kingdom's COVID-19 Inquiry on "core UK decision-making and political governance".

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It is scathing of the UK's initial handling of the pandemic and the "toxic and chaotic culture" of Boris Johnson's Conservative government that delayed taking key actions on lockdowns, miscommunicated information about the pandemic and did not take into account a wider range of expert views. Notwithstanding the UK's better pandemic performance compared to some other countries, the Hallett Inquiry believes government nevertheless "failed their citizens".

Armed with statutory coercive powers of investigation, the UK's COVID-19 Inquiry chaired by Baroness Heather Hallett, a retired British judge, has wide terms of reference to review all of the UK's - including Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland - preparedness, decision-making arrangements and impacts of the pandemic.

It is in stark contrast to the Albanese government's non-statutory COVID-19 Response Inquiry.

Instead of the promised royal commission, the Australian inquiry had no powers of investigation or to protect witnesses wanting to give evidence. Moreover, its terms of reference precluded it from reviewing "actions taken unilaterally by state and territory governments". In our federal system, they took many of the controversial actions on lockdowns, border........

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