ACT's COVID response mired in secrecy and spin

At a time when other jurisdictions, including NSW, were being frank and open, senior ACT health officials clutched vital information on the vaccination status of victims - which would likely have incentivised more locals to have their third jab - close to their chests. Information on how many of the Canberrans who died had co-morbidities, and how many were in palliative care when they contracted the virus, was also suppressed.

Health officials, who even failed to action a direct request for information from Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith, seemed more concerned about massaging the messaging than getting the message out.

When Ms Stephen-Smith wanted to say "of those who have died in 2022, a number were already undergoing palliative care" she was told bureaucrats could not confirm that: "While we have some anecdotal information on this, we cannot back it up with data ... if we were asked to clarify the numbers we will not be able to do so".

Really? Given Canberra's small population, and the fact the total number of deaths was very low this would seem to be either obfuscation or borderline incompetence.

The former appears more likely given the Chief Health Officer subsequently expressed concerns data that was routinely being released in other states could be "misinterpreted" if it was made public here.

And, of course, the cover-all cloak of "privacy concerns" was rolled out as a justification not to comment on the vaccination status of people who had died on every possible occasion.

Given no deaths were reported by name, and no information about the vaccination status of individuals was ever asked for - or released - how could revealing only one of the 17 people who died during the Omicron wave had had a booster compromise anybody's privacy? Thankfully, in the end that particular fact was included.

The fact media advisers had to argue the case for this information to be included is remarkable. Surely anyone could see that the community knowing that almost everybody who had succumbed had not had a booster would have helped at a time when the take-up was faltering.

Information on the vaccination status of those who had died was being released on a daily basis by NSW health authorities at this time for exactly that reason.

While this is not the first time ACT Health, or other bureaucratic fiefdoms, have been caught out withholding information, the stakes have rarely been higher.

This issue is important because when a community is in the grip of a major crisis - as the ACT was in January and February - it is vital individuals receive the most relevant and up to date information that is available.

The ACT government, including its bureaucrats, answers to the people who pay the bills; the people don't answer to it. Nor do the bureaucrats have a remit to decide what the public might think or what information should be withheld.

On this occasion the problem was not with the minister, who was fronting the public on an almost daily basis with as much information as she could lay her hands on, but a systemic culture of secrecy and spin within the Health Directorate and the broader ACT bureaucracy.

One would hope Ms Stephen-Smith initiates at the earliest opportunity an earnest dialogue with her specialist advisers to ascertain on what grounds they are invoking privacy concerns to keep Canberrans in the dark.

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