Thursday, 28 October 2021

 Mr T SMITH (Kew) (14:16): My question is to the Minister for Health. When will fully vaccinated primary close contacts not have to isolate?

 Mr FOLEY (Albert Park—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Equality) (14:16): So if I understood the honourable member’s question correctly: when will fully vaccinated primary close contacts—presumably there are several levels of those. There are, for example, household primary close contacts. That is someone who is sharing a premises with someone in Victoria at the moment who is going to have, if they have got COVID, the delta variant, which has a strike rate of close to 100 per cent in domestic settings, regardless of all sorts of other factors—the vaccinated or unvaccinated status they may have. Or it could be primary close contacts in a workplace setting, and there are several of those. It could be, for instance, in areas of high-risk workplaces such as health care, which has one set of furlough arrangements, or it could be in private aged care, which has another related set of arrangements. It could be in high-risk settings such as cold storage or abattoirs, or it could be in distribution centres. Or it could be covered by the national freight industry arrangements, which also have furloughing arrangements, or it could be in any number of other settings which have nuanced arrangements worked out between those sectors and the public health sectors to take account of things like the particular circumstances of their industry, their household, the particular circumstances of PPE, infection prevention and control, ventilation measures and a whole range of other things.

Some people might like to think there are simple solutions to complex problems. Some people might like to think that they can make stuff up and send virtue signals to anti-vaxxers. That is not the position of this government. This government works on evidence, science and the best advice from leading clinicians, practitioners and public health officials. That is why there is no simple answer to the honourable member’s question, because each set of circumstances has to be dealt with uniquely to the set of arrangements that apply.

Having said all of that, the truth is that as more and more Victorians get vaccinated we are seeing changes in how those furloughing arrangements apply that open us up safely and progressively to make sure that the hard work that millions of Victorians have done is rewarded, and I look forward to the continuation of that fantastic effort. I thank on behalf of not just, I am sure, all honourable members but particularly our front-line healthcare workers and others, that outstanding contribution that those Victorians have done to come forward in record numbers. So the short answer, member for Kew, is there is no simple answer to complex problems, despite what those opposite might wish to pretend.

 Mr T SMITH (Kew) (14:19): Dear oh dear, oh, deary me. I mean really—that is confidence for you.Given the national plan at phase D talks about managing COVID like other infectious diseases, is it the government’s intention that workplaces like offices will continue to be closed down if they are visited by a COVID-positive individual?

 Mr FOLEY (Albert Park—Minister for Health, Minister for Ambulance Services, Minister for Equality) (14:20): I thank the honourable member for his question and his reference to the national plan, which this government is on the verge, tomorrow, of delivering in full. Again, thank you to the great efforts of millions of Victorians.

In regard to the specific issue that the honourable member raises, again, as I have pointed out, given the array of different circumstances, given the array of different sectors, given the differences of risk potential, given the differences of infection prevention and control measures—PPE, ventilation—and different risk strategies in place that have been worked through over the course of the past 20 months with so many sectors, there is an answer for each of those sectors based on how the virus might play out in those particular communities and those particular industries, based on an array of complex matters that those opposite seek to deny in their simplistic calls for changes that are unwarranted.