Hansard debates

Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (12:45): My constituency question is for the Minister for Health. For the past five days the half a million constituents in the 24 local government municipalities in my electorate have been locked down. This is despite not a single case of coronavirus ever appearing in any of these areas. There were only 25 active cases in metro Melbourne during these past five days of this lockdown, which the figures showed were in just six local government areas and many of which were a result of hotel quarantine issues. It is completely absurd that people in Nhill, Horsham and Portland, to name a few, were locked down despite no active cases being within more than 200 kilometres of them. Minister, why does the government not follow New South Wales’s successful lead, which restricts movement by distinct local government areas, thereby avoiding statewide pain and suffering, especially for country Victoria?