A new report has examined a lack of preparation within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to manage the international crisis presented by the coronavirus pandemic.
The report, prepared by a joint parliamentary committee, also expressed "deep concern" over comments made by the former prime minister, which were not underpinned by DFAT advice.
DFAT is the lead agency for response and recovery in international crises, and ran a crisis centre from its Barton office during the pandemic, made up of 200 officers from across the department.
On September 18 2020, then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison said his government would aim to bring all Australians stranded overseas home by Christmas.
"I would hope that those who are looking to come home, that we'd be able to do that within months and I would hope that we can get as many people home, if not all of them by Christmas," Mr Morrison said.
DFAT did not prepare any briefing for the national cabinet meeting at which this was decided.
The report noted that "government ministers have a responsibility to be as fully informed by sensible and evidence-based advice from public servants as possible before making public commitments in such sensitive areas".
"DFAT's evidence that no advice was provided to Ministers before these public commitments were made is deeply concerning," the report said.
Labor MP Julian Hill, chair of the Joint Committee of Public Accounts and Audit said this caused confusion for stranded Australians.
"This led to confusing and misleading public messaging to stranded Australians in 2020 and 2021, and underscores the responsibility of government ministers to ensure they are informed by sensible and evidence-based advice before making public commitments in such sensitive areas," Mr Hill said.
The committee was tasked with probing DFAT's role in facilitating the return of Australians who had been stranded overseas during the pandemic.
The Australian government closed its borders to all non-citizens and non-residents on March 20 2020, and they remained closed until November 2021.
The report found that a lack of adequate quarantine accommodation hampered the agency's ability to assist Australians to come home.
A shortage of adequate accommodation for mandatory quarantines prompted states and territories to introduce caps on passenger arrivals at major international airports.
"The committee also considers that more could and should have been done by the Commonwealth to provide adequate quarantine facilities later in the pandemic," the report stated.
"This was one of the key constraints upon DFAT's ability to bring stranded Australians home."
The committee commended DFAT staff for their work during unpredictable circumstances, but said it found "some lack of preparation to manage a full global crisis in which issues erupted rapidly across the world".
Shortcomings in the agency's data quality and completeness were also identified, relating to the number of Australians overseas who wished to return home.
For example, there were more than 6000 registrations to an online portal for Australians overseas, which appeared to have been created after the person had returned to Australia.
The report also referred to an earlier probe by the Australian National Audit Office which was unable to verify the number of people the agency assisted to return to Australia because of inadequate data.
The report made four recommendations focused on future proofing the agency's crisis response management.
