Do we like them?

Do we like Paul Kelly?

Our score: 7 out of 10. Clean on both tests in what I could read, but it's mostly a public-servant record and I couldn't open many full articles.

Don't confuse him with the singer-songwriter of the same name. This Paul Kelly is the public health physician who was Australia's Chief Medical Officer through the worst of COVID, from 2020 until he retired in October 2024. He also headed the interim Australian Centre for Disease Control.

His biggest stoush was with Liberal backbencher Craig Kelly (no relation) over hydroxychloroquine. In August 2020 the chief medical officers copped a public attack from the MP, and Paul Kelly stuck to the evidence, saying the drug didn't work as a COVID treatment.

The harm check comes up clean. He later said there was no evidence that ivermectin helps against COVID-19, and he kept urging people to get vaccinated. That is the opposite of the grievance and conspiracy slide this page watches for. I found no statements from him on LGBTQ+ people, women or the climate, so the test rests on his public-health record.

On the good-person side, the Public Health Association of Australia's chief executive called him “the right man to offer leadership to Australia during the COVID-19 pandemic”. The association also said all people in Australia owe him a debt of gratitude. No misconduct allegations, lawsuits or scandals turned up in my searches.

Nothing new on him lately. I found no 2026 controversy or major story, and plenty of the paperwork I wanted (his own interviews, the retirement releases) wouldn't open for me. Treat this as a solid but thinly read verdict, and a bloke who did a hard job in public without disgracing himself.