Government threw out ‘perfectly prepared’ pandemic plans in panic: Tony Abbott

Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott says the government threw out “perfectly prepared” pandemic plans and panicked in response to COVID-19.

It comes as former health minister Greg Hunt has hit out states and territories for their 'unilateral' health decisions which were not based off medial evidence.

“When you go back and look at this honestly, and dispassionately you would have to say that the first mistake that governments made was throwing out the perfectly prepared pandemic plans that we all had in panic," Mr Abbott told Sky News host Peta Credlin.

“Because of the dire photographs coming out of overwhelmed Italian hospitals.

“I think that had lot more to do with the Italian hospital system than it had to do with the severity of the disease itself."