Questions without notice and ministers statements
COVID-19
Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:33): My question is to the Minister for Health. All Victorians have the right to return home, so by what date will the government amend border health orders to allow Victorians stranded at the New South Wales border to return to their homes?
Mr FOLEY (Albert Park—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Equality) (14:34): Can I thank the honourable Leader of the Opposition for his question. This is a very, very vexing issue that the honourable member has touched on, made more vexed just this very day when I received a phone call mid-morning from the New South Wales health minister advising me that under their public health orders they were immediately, as of 6.00 pm this evening, locking down the local government area of Albury, understanding of course that Albury and Wodonga are essentially the one community operating within a border bubble and indeed for the health portfolio the Albury Wodonga Health service is operated by the Victorian health service. So in regard to that vexed issue becoming more complicated over the course of today—because of course there are a number of Australian citizens, Victorians, in Albury as we speak, having their return home application processed—it is now further complicated by these events.
Having said that, we are determined to go through a process to get these Victorians home in a safe and timely manner, and it is the safe manner that is particularly the issue. We understand the awful set of circumstances that so many of these people are facing in these difficulties. That is why we are currently processing some 400 applications to get people home from immediately north of the Murray in the border bubble area. Those are being processed as we speak, and quite a number have been processed.
In regard to the many thousands of other Victorians who have put in applications, they are being triaged carefully through a process whereby end-of-life palliative care and funeral arrangements are given priority, and many, many hundreds of those have in fact been processed already. In regard to the many other applications, some—not many, but some—are in fact applications for people who have resided in New South Wales for many years to move to Victoria permanently. And then there is everything in between: those who want to provide care, those who want to return home for study—a multitude of human reasons. I apologise to all of those Victorians for the discomfort and the difficulties that this has caused them. This is a very, very troubling position. The Victorian government, based on health advice, is processing those in a risk-based, timely manner. We feel a deep sense of urgency to try to process those as quickly and as expeditiously as we can, but to do so in a safe manner. In regard, therefore, to the honourable member’s question, the answer is: when it is safe and timely to do so.
Mr GUY (Bulleen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:37): I thank the minister for that answer. Noting that many hundreds of Victorians are stranded at the New South Wales border beyond Albury at places such as Moama, Wentworth, Euston and Mulwala and they are doing so at their own cost, many missing health appointments, I ask: with health orders locking these people out of their own state, has the government considered compensating these Victorians, given it has been a government health decision to lock them out of their own state?
Mr FOLEY (Albert Park—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Equality) (14:37): Essentially what has locked these people out of Victoria is the global pandemic and the chief health officer’s declaration of both New South Wales and the ACT as extreme risk zones in regard to the somewhat earlier and continued high levels of virus transmission in New South Wales, particularly in Sydney, where of course most of the applications for people wanting to get into Victoria are currently coming from.
In regard to those people in the border bubble but on the northern side of the Murray River, that is the area from which several hundred applications are as we speak being processed. Some of them have indeed been processed, and some people have returned home—so not just beyond Albury but, as you said, all the way along the river. This is an important issue that the government is committed to.