Hansard debates

Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (18:10): My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Health. Victoria has now been in a state of emergency since March 2020, more than 10 months. Victorians have had to endure one curfew, 23 hours a day at home, 5-kilometre restrictions, fines, compulsory masks and two lockdowns. It was supposed to be short-term pain for long-term gain. We were promised by the Premier that, quote:

These restrictions will be in place for not one day longer than they need to be.

So to hear today of a further nine-month extension is not just disappointing but disastrous. Victoria is now 27 days without a locally transmitted coronavirus case and there were just three in the previous two months, and yet the restrictions remain. The Department of Health and Human Services on Friday justified it, noting the serious public health risk from coronavirus.

How much longer must we accept this? The Premier has had a year to get to grips with the virus, as have the health ministers, and yet he still wants to rely on sweeping emergency powers which put back our recovery further. Where is the targeted legislation? Where are the moves back to ordered, everyday government? It seems that the longer this government sign off on the state-of-emergency powers, the longer they want complete control over the populace. Businesses and Victorians want normality back, and a continued state of emergency undermines this. Who in their right mind would invest in a state under emergency powers?

Some of us warned that the Public Health and Wellbeing Act amendment passed by this Parliament was writing the Premier a blank cheque. The shocking job loss and business closure toll now make it clear that it is Victorian businesses which are footing the bill. Messages matter, and a unilateral declaration of a further nine months of the state of emergency is a disastrous message. So I ask the minister: what will it take to make the Premier give up this current modus operandi of control and fear and move to restore the normal rule of law?

The action I seek is for the minister to outline what steps he will take to prepare us for a post-COVID world. To rely on never-ending state-of-emergency powers cannot be acceptable to anybody with a democratic bone in their body. If new laws are required, then so be it; let them be brought into this place and discussed in full. Continuing to rely on powers crafted for wartime or disaster scenarios is the refuge of tyrants. It undermines not just business confidence but the trust which binds a free society.