Commentary says Australia failed COVID supply-chain lesson, criticises Albanese’s economic stewardship

A sharply worded commentary argues Australia has not learned key lessons from the COVID-19 pandemic, contending that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese has spent four years in government presiding over a decline in the nation’s economic resilience, particularly in its supply chains.

The piece asserts that resilience has deteriorated both broadly and in logistics specifically. In a rhetorical flourish, it invokes an old Yogi Berra exchange — a teacher asking, “Don’t you know anything?” and Berra replying, “I don’t even suspect anything” — to suggest a lack of economic acuity at the top.

It also likens Albanese to former prime minister Gough Whitlam.

According to the commentary, those who knew Whitlam in government recounted that he was not interested in economics, which it says helps explain why he delegated economic policy to Jim Cairns and “presided over an economic meltdown.” Framed as a lesson unlearned from the pandemic era, the critique centres on the claim that Australia’s economic and supply chain resilience has weakened on Albanese’s watch, presenting this as a cautionary warning the country has yet to absorb.