Hansard debates

Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (14:13): My question is for the Minister for Health and regards the limits on mourners present at funerals. I pay tribute to Maria Cameron, chair of the Port Fairy cemetery trust, who has brought to my attention the unnecessary additional grief inflicted by rules on outdoor burials in stage 3 areas. Numbers of mourners at funerals in enclosed environments may need to be lower, and in areas fully locked down with active cases, yet the limit includes funeral staff—sometimes three of the 10 allowed—and applies even outdoors, in cemeteries where easier social distancing and greater airflow make the transmission risk negligible, and in areas with zero active COVID cases. Virtual services cannot replace being present, especially where broadband uptake and infrastructure are both patchy at best. So I ask the minister: when will you recognise the hurt caused by these inflexible regulations and treat outdoor burials in stage 3 locations differently to funerals in enclosed environments?