An independent Centre for Disease Control could help repair public trust damaged during the government’s response to Covid, a federal minister says.

Setting up a CDC is among the key recommendations of a 670-page report on Australia’s Covid-19 response that also found the disease exhausted the nation’s healthcare systems, public service and economy, and eroded public trust.

The federal government says it will spend $251 million over four years to establish the centre, with a commitment of funding into the future despite the looming election.

While the report found some of the responses to Covid in the later stages of the pandemic had undermined trust, Social Services Minister Amanda Rishworth said an impartial body such as a CDC could help restore it for future outbreaks.

“I hope that as we build up this capability, that this transparency, but also the real-time evidence, provides people with the reassurance that what we’re asking them to do is actually something that they should do,” she told ABC Radio on Wednesday.

“This Centre for Disease Control will be independent, but I think importantly, it will be much more responsive and transparent with the evidence.”

The federal government said the CDC would be established in Canberra in 2026.

Health Minister Mark Butler said the report found there was concern that while people complied with health directions during Covid, they would be less likely to do so in future pandemics.

“That’s a serious concern, because there is going to be another one of these. I hope that it is not for a very long time, but there will be another pandemic. They could even be more deadly than the Covid-19 virus was,” he told ABC TV.

“We have to rebuild that trust, and central to that is the confidence that community has is that the decisions that government are making balances risk and benefits of a particular decision.”

Butler said the CDC would also help to build response plans for future pandemics so Australia was more prepared.

Former deputy chief medial officer Nick Coatsworth said lockdowns for a possible future pandemic would be harder to enforce.

“We’d have a real challenge to do that, and maybe we don’t get a virus where we actually need to do that,” he told Nine’s Today program.

“If we did, then we’d have to be exceptional at communicating the reasons for that level of flow-on effects.”

The Public Health Association of Australia said the initial funding for the CDC was modest but a good start.

“The report very much looks to the CDC to take a lead a whole range of the big challenges,” chief executive Terry Slevin said.

This includes building infrastructure to collect accurate disease information in real time and hiring a team capable of communicating it in a clear and succinct manner.

The centre is also likely to be involved in behavioural research and influencing people’s health choices.

“These are easy to say, not so easy to do, and so the challenge is to make sure that investment is very much for the long term and growing to match the level of responsibility the Centre for Disease Control can and should prosecute,” Slevin said.

-AAP