The six-month long independent inquiry will be overseen by Western Sydney University chancellor and former top public servant Peter Shergold.

It is being described as non-political and will be funded by three separate philanthropic groups, the Minderoo Foundation, the Paul Ramsay Foundation and the John and Myriam Wylie Foundation.

The review intends to look at the big picture of Australia's pandemic response and will report to the federal government in September.

It asks for submissions of no more than 1500 words and will provide a small number of practical, high-impact recommendations on how Australia can be better prepared for future health crises.

The federal government has continually spruiked Australia's economic position as being better than elsewhere in the world following the pandemic.

But in his final speech to parliament last week, Liberal elder Kevin Andrews called for a "thorough, transparent review of our response nationally to the pandemic".

"The COVID pandemic has exposed many weaknesses in our system of government and highlighted fault lines that we have long ignored," he said on Thursday.

Epidemiology expert Catherine Bennett says the review will find the gaps in Australia's COVID response that may not have been picked up yet.

"(The review) is not about saying what was (done) right or even what was wrong, it's saying what do we take from that, what do we learn and where do we still have gaps," Professor Bennett told Sky News on Tuesday.

"There's a lot that is still yet to be fully understood about what in the future (Australia) needs in our health departments and how we can resource that."

Submissions can be made via the website e61.in/covid-review and will be kept confidential.

Australian Associated Press