Hansard debates

Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (19:01): I rise today to speak on this motion which will evict MPs from the Legislative Council if they do not provide evidence of their vaccinated status. This is, I have to say, a very sad day for democracy, free speech and individual rights. To potentially deny millions of constituents a voice is almost akin to totalitarianism and should be foreign in this country. I am a strong believer in freedom of choice. Individuals, not governments, know how to make the best decisions in their lives.

I totally respect Mr Limbrick’s passionate and justifiable position, and he is quite correct: this exercise could well be simply virtue signalling, because without rapid testing we could walk into this chamber and end up a superspreader whether we are vaccinated completely or not and regardless of whether we have handed over our health records. And as Ms Maxwell said, if everyone in this chamber declares they are vaccinated even without supplying their personal records, what is the point of the motion? Like Mr Finn, I hope this overreach motion can be improved by amendment, even though it probably should not have been presented in the first place. Mr Barton referred to the mandate bestowed on the government at the last election, but with great respect, Mr Barton, they were not given a mandate to lock down and lock up people to the extent they have done in this state. As Mr Rich-Phillips has said, this is likely to set a very egregious precedent of discrimination and exclusion of elected representatives.

Throughout this pandemic the prevailing approach to the crisis across this country, especially from Labor state governments, has unfortunately been driven by coercion rather than cooperation. Where possible the government approach to problems facing society should always primarily be persuasion, not policing. I am double vaccinated. My entire family are vaccinated. We have chosen to be vaccinated against any disease that we can, whether it be flu or any other contagion. The government should be allowing others to make that choice too. The solution to the real imperative that Victoria and Australia vaccinate its population to a sufficiently high level to prevent widespread outbreaks of COVID-19 and the overwhelming of our health system should have been encouragement and education, not exclusion.

Instead the Victorian government have inflamed social division in our state by opting for bullying and berating. Rather than promoting efficacy and safety of vaccines, we have ostracised people, demonised them and forced them into a choice between a medical procedure and feeding their families. The Victorian government have blamed everyone but themselves for the circumstances we find ourselves in. Victoria has had the most cases in the country, the most deaths in this country and the longest lockdowns in the world—and yet we have the highest cases ever today. So all this draconian activity does not appear to have worked anyway.

We have had citywide curfews unlike anywhere else in the country, but the Victorian government takes no responsibility for this. First the virus itself was blamed last year, with the Premier attributing it agency by declaring it was wicked, to cover up for his hotel quarantine disaster, while the rest of the country was virtually COVID-free. Then it was the federal government for not ordering enough vaccines, while the rest of the country was still mostly COVID-free. Now those who do not want to be forced to be vaccinated are apparently to blame—anybody but this Labor government.

The coalition position is that we are opposed to mandatory vaccination outside the health and education sectors. I can understand requiring staff to be vaccinated in health and aged care. They are in close proximity to vulnerable people, and often hospitals require vaccination against the flu anyway. Forcing it on all workers across the state, however, is totally unnecessary and a betrayal of our society’s foundation in freedom and consent.

Not only are we forcing it on workers, but we are forcing businesses to become the government’s police force. The requirements are extraordinary and, as has been the case from day one of the pandemic, we have received no medical advice justifying these diktats, like nowhere else in the world. There is endless and understandable confusion about these requirements. The reporting and compliance issues are a nightmare. What do employers do if their employees refuse to disclose their vaccination status? Does it apply to independent contractors? Do employers have to make vaccination status a job requirement before hiring? Can employers be sued for discrimination? And when they are forced to close down through lack of workers, who compensates them—who compensates that family in a small business or on a farm? Does every employer have to seek legal advice to ensure they are not prosecuted by the government or sued by their employees?

Daniel Andrews only deals with big business, big government and big unions. These requirements might be okay for them, but they are not okay for small businesses, one-man operators and particularly farmers. Those worthy business operators do not have access to a massive HR department. Farmers in the middle of rural Victoria cannot be expected to enforce burdensome requirements on every truck driver and temporary farm worker who comes through their gates. They are not lawyers or HR specialists. They just grow food, to keep us alive.

There is also the issue of requiring CFA volunteers to be vaccinated. Brave CFA firefighters have kept the people of my electorate safe from bushfire for generations. The chief health officer recently declared that all CFA volunteers will be required to be fully vaccinated by 26 November to attend stations and fires. A local western Victorian CFA captain recently wrote to me, concerned about this directive which forces him to prevent volunteers who have chosen not to be vaccinated from keeping the community safe.

Ms Symes: That’s not true. Send them to me and I’ll talk to them.

Mrs McARTHUR: Okay, great. Because if this requirement is true—

Ms Symes: No, it’s not.

Mrs McARTHUR: I will wait to be corrected by the minister. It is supposedly based on keeping the community safe. What is the greater risk? The spread of coronavirus from a firefighter to a member of the largely vaccinated community or the risk of bushfire destroying lives, livelihood and property?

In New South Wales the government is penalising employees for not being vaccinated, while here in Victoria we are punishing businesses. No surprise; this government hates business, especially small business. Yesterday a bill in the other place set out to fine people $40 000 for illegally accessing people’s health records, but the government today is simultaneously fining business $109 000 for not complying with the mandate to collect, record and hold vaccination information on their employees—an extraordinary level of inconsistency, which says it all about the values of this government. It is appalling enough that the government is implementing such heavy-handed mandates and crushing public health orders but even worse that they are making private citizens enforce them on their behalf. Ultimately the inescapable question facing our state is whether we are going to return to pre-COVID normality. I believe we must, not only in terms of removing all public health restrictions but also returning to a society that values freedom of choice and the rights of the individual rather than coercion and mandates.

Members of Parliament, like most Victorians, should be highly encouraged but also given the final choice as to whether they should be vaccinated. However, given my colleagues in the coalition have supported mandating vaccines for health and education workers, I cannot ask for special treatment for politicians and therefore me. I therefore must vote to be treated equally along with the rest of Victorians, who have been so harshly dealt with by this government. I also believe it will be in the interests of this government to have their often vocal opponents denied access to the Parliament. It will just open the door for this government to be able to rush through even more draconian legislation with even less opposition than would otherwise be the case.

With that in mind, I urge my fellow Legislative Council members to not give this dictatorial government carte blanche to control the lives of Victorians even further. We have an obligation to try and make the best of a bad thing here, and the worst thing we can do is hand over even more power to this government to control the lives of individuals and families, let alone the businesses that might get up and running, because they are already struggling, those that are left; so many have gone to the wall. The people that have suffered incredible mental health duress from the lock-up—those people have suffered too much. We cannot let this government have any more power to control people’s lives.

I wonder: we have encouraged people to get vaccinated, and everybody has gone out and done the right thing in my electorate—in the Queenscliffe borough they have 92.5 per cent full vaccination; Surf Coast shire, 78.7; Buloke, 76.4; Warrnambool, 73.5; Southern Grampians, 71.9; Yarriambiack, 71.8; and Moyne, 70.2. Why are these people not rewarded for the fact that they have done what you asked? They have gone and got vaccinated, but still restrictions are applied, these mandates are put in force and so many will be out of work tomorrow.

I have to say, women will be particularly affected, especially young women, because in many areas they will not have a job tomorrow if they have not been vaccinated. It does affect women. The number of women in the country that have written to me and phoned me in tears about the fact that they will lose their job or their business will not be able to continue is quite considerable. It may not be happening in the metropolitan area, because this seems to be a metropolitan piece of legislation, but in the country people are very concerned, and they are concerned that their little school or health centre will not be able to operate. What will they do for a worker on their farm? They cannot even work on their farm themselves if they are not vaccinated. Has anybody thought through all the ridiculous consequences of this sort of approach?

I encourage everybody to get vaccinated—absolutely—but do not kill the lives of more people by being such control freaks. Anyway, I am forced to support this motion. I urge my colleagues in this chamber to please not give this government more power by being evicted from this Parliament, because they do not need more power.