Reasons for pre-flight tests on China are now clear but home Covid strategies remain murky | Paul Karp

Those were the explanations the health minister, Mark Butler, offered throughout the week.

After two years of harsh policies including border closures and lockdowns gave Australia world-beating health results, 2022 was the deadliest year, with more than 14,000 Covid deaths.

The pre-flight testing regime seemed to be full of political risks for the government, including criticism from the opposition for abandoning advice and imperilling the fragile relationship with China.

But the government has calculated that the risk is actually very low.

And China itself requires pre-flight tests, so when it huffed and puffed about reciprocal countermeasures, Butler could honestly say Australia is asking no more of our arrivals than China does of theirs.

Outrage about the medical advice prompted the second Butler press conference, in which he praised his own transparency for having released it.