Just when we’d forgotten the names of the country’s chief health/medical officers, PM Anthony Albanese is set to launch an official inquiry into the pandemic response by federal and state governments. Reports say it won’t be a royal commission, but the panel of medical and economic experts will have powers to call witnesses. And there are plenty of stones to turn over – the shutting down of international borders and quarantine regime, interstate border closures, school closures, billions of public dollars spent on support for workers and businesses, repeated lockdowns (shudder) – and many more. The Coalition wants a full-blown royal commission and has accused Team Albanese overnight of “running a protection racket for the state premiers” who are mostly Labor-aligned.