Uproar over Premier’s Wish to increase the State of Emergency a further 12 months
The Premier released a press release on August 24th that would introduce legislation changes into the Victorian Parliament to ensure the public health directions protecting Victorians from coronavirus can continue to be enforced. Some of the key public health protections required to manage this pandemic are only available when a State of Emergency has been declared under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 – such as mandatory face coverings, requiring workplaces to have a COVIDSafe Plan and the current and past restrictions that have helped slow the spread of the virus. There are other Acts that could be used but the Premier claims that it is easiest and best to use the Public Health Act as is being done now. It also ensures public health risk powers can be exercised – for example, requiring positive cases to isolate.

Since first being introduced in March 2020, the State of Emergency has been extended six times, but under current legislation it can only remain in place for a total of six months. Other states have different rules and the difference appears to be that the  Victorian legislation has a hard ceiling of 6 months to these emergency powers where the other states do not. Apparently the original writers of this Act did not think that a State of Emergency would need to be declared longer than 6 months.

The media release went on to claim that until we have a vaccine, we need to continue in our fight against coronavirus. That means, regardless of when restrictions may ease, some of the current protections under the State of Emergency – including mandatory face coverings and requiring workplaces to have a COVIDSafe Plan – will remain necessary. By extending the maximum length of the State of Emergency,  the Victorian Government can continue its efforts to keep all Victorians safe.

Amendments to the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 will be introduced on 1 September, which will allow the State of Emergency to be in place for a total of up to 18 months – encompassing the six months these arrangements have already been in place, with an extra 12 months to help ensure we see out the other side of this pandemic. There is some discussion now of a negotiated deal between the back-benchers in Parliament to reduce the period to an extra 6 months. The Premier in his media grillings over this matter stated that the powers would be rolled over every 4 weeks as has been done during this first 6 months. But when the 6 months is up that would no longer be possible unless the extension was approved in Parliament.

Local Member makes facebook post on the issue

Danny O’Brien posted the following on his facebook page August 24th. “Today we learned Labor will put legislation to State Parliament to extend the Government’s state of emergency powers for a further 12 months. The state of emergency is what gives the government power to enforce the current lockdowns.  It’s currently limited to six months by law for good reason. A further 12-month extension would mean extraordinary power over Victorian lives in the hands of a small few. No oversight. No accountability. 

There’s no argument that public health must be a priority, but we can’t keep shutting down our economy and our society indefinitely. We have to look at other ways to protect the vulnerable, ensure the health system can cope, and allow our society to function. To learn to live with this virus until there (hopefully) is a vaccine. The Nationals won’t support the Andrews Labor Government writing itself a 12-month blank cheque for extended extraordinary power over Victorians”.

Mr O’Brien was asked how he would go about achieving his aim of finding other ways to protect the vulnerable, ensure the health system can cope, and allow our society to function (in the event that the Parliament did not extend the 6 month period), and received the following response:

“The Premier has had every opportunity to talk to the Opposition about limited extensions of the state of emergency powers, say for two or three months, with referral back to Parliament for oversight.  He has chosen not to do so. We stand ready to support the reasonable needs of government in dealing with this crisis, but a 12-month blank cheque of power for the government will not be tolerated. There is a very good reason the state of emergency powers were limited by law to six months.”

Mr O’Brien was again asked to clarify what other ways he suggested to ensure the health system can cope, to protect and how to allow society to function but no response was received. When a response is received this post will be updated to include his comments.