COVID-19
Mr WELLS (Rowville) (09:58): This statement condemns the Andrews government for hiding behind so-called health advice for its pandemic decisions when Victorians have been promised transparency and disclosure. Parliament’s Pandemic Declaration Accountability and Oversight Committee heard stunning admissions from Victoria’s chief health officer, Brett Sutton, at a recent hearing. According to Professor Sutton, he gave no advice for or against the decision to lift crowd capacity at the Australian Open tennis from 65 to 80 per cent for the finals weekend, despite there still being 101 000 active cases in the state on the day before those finals. It was purely a decision by the Victorian government. The Premier flagged mandates for a third vaccination at a press conference, stating, ‘I’ll follow the advice of experts’, yet Professor Sutton told the committee the very next day he gave no advice on mandating third vaccinations.
The hearing also revealed that the government made the decision to scrap elective surgery without advice from the chief health officer. Professor Sutton even stated there was no impact to public health from the resumption of IVF services, showing that the decision was hasty and had little impact on the treatment of COVID patients. With thousands of Victorians waiting and praying for increasingly urgent surgery, this government cannot keep shifting responsibility for this latest health crisis onto the so-called health advice.