Cabinet papers 2005: John Howard’s government was warned in 2005 that schools and borders might need to be shut under a pandemic

Alexander Downer told senior colleagues the H5N1 strain of bird flu could mutate into a pandemic with potentially devastating consequences' for Australia and the world

• Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast

Health officials warned the Howard government that Australia might need to close schools and shut international borders in the event of a global influenza pandemic, nearly 15 years before the arrival of Covid-19.

Previously unreleased cabinet papers made public by the National Archives of Australia on Thursday show planning for an influenza pandemic reached all the way to the national security committee of federal cabinet in October 2005. The discussions, two years after the Sars viral respiratory disease spread across Asia, presaged much of the response as Covid-19 spread around the world.