As Australia’s lockdown eases, this policy brief places the Australian response to the COVID-19 pandemic in global perspective, focusing on how the pandemic has affected the democratic system and assessing how the government’s response complies with democratic standards. Australia has been a global leader in its COVID-19 response. However, six key challenges are discussed at the end of this document.

Key points:

• The COVID-19 pandemic has had a dramatic impact on democracies worldwide. An unprecedented number of states are simultaneously under a state of emergency and have derogated from key human rights treaties. Over 50 states have postponed elections.
• Government responses in democracies worldwide can be divided into 4 broad categories: effective rationalists; constrained rationalists; autocratic opportunists; and fantasists.
• Australia’s response falls into the ‘effective rationalist’ camp. The state has effectively addressed the pandemic through fact-based policy, acted within the constraints of the law, placed clear limitations on emergency actions, and developed innovative responses to address the crisis; principally, the National Cabinet.
• That said, there is a need for attention to 6 key issues: reviving parliaments; making the National Cabinet more transparent; ensuring adequate restrictions on surveillance measures; organising forthcoming elections; mitigating the pandemic’s hollowing out of independent media across Australia; and seizing the moment for democratic reform.