Health minister Mark Butler insists states and territories will not escape COVID scrutiny

The minister is staring down fierce criticism of the Albanese government decision with the just-announced 12-month expert-led inquiry to not run it as a Royal Commission or judicial inquiry, and exclude "unilateral decisions" made by the state and territory governments.

Human rights groups, health figures, and the federal opposition have criticised the "limited" scope, saying it would leave out the most controversial pandemic decisions relating to lockdowns, border closures, and the distribution of vaccines and tests. The Coalition accused the government of protecting Labor premiers and warned of a "witch hunt" against the former Morrison government.

Mr Butler said he rejects any notion that states will escape scrutiny or examination over their pandemic responses.

"What you've seen from state premiers is a very, very different response," Mr Butler told the ABC.

"Everyone here, everyone in our country has a shared commitment for us to do as well as we possibly can the next time [a pandemic] strikes and that means having an honest conversation about what went well and about what didn't go so well."

The inquiry, announced on Wednesday by the Prime Minister, will also not have the power to compel witnesses to appear and is not required to hold public hearings.

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Opposition frontbencher Simon Birmingham said it was a "ridiculous proposition" to carve out the states.

"This inquiry, if it's worth doing, it's worth doing properly. It's not worth some half-baked job that only looks at half of the issues or even less than that potentially," he told Sky News.

"So the government's got to work out whether it actually wants to do this properly."

But, Mr Butler said the new inquiry has been discussed at national cabinet and between health ministers, while there have already been indications that former NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk will appear.

"I think everyone is on that same page, except perhaps those who just want another round of the blame game," Mr Butler said.

The government-appointed independent panel will consider a number of issues, including the provision of vaccinations, treatments, and medical supplies as well as financial support for people and businesses, and help for Australians abroad.

The minister indicated the inquiry could look at some of the controversial state and territory decisions, but warned that scrutinising all of the "thousands of decisions that were taken over the last four years" would take years.

"Really, this is about looking forward, this is about being constructive, not some divisive, destructive political point scoring process," Mr Butler said.

The three members of the panel are Deakin University's chair in epidemiology Professor Catherine Bennett, former director-general of the NSW Department of Health Robyn Kruk, and health economist Dr Angela Jackson.

Even though the COVID-19 inquiry panel is not compelled to hold public hearings, the Minister said he thought it would be "unusual" if they did not happen.

He also said he expected there would be no problem that the inquiry could not force people to appear.

"I think what you've seen from the response over the last 24 hours is that everyone wants to participate freely in this inquiry," he said. "We're not going to have to summons people to this inquiry. People want to build the best possible response in the future."