COVID-19
Mr SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (14:33): My question is to the Minister for Government Services. Minister, why is the government not leading by example to support struggling small business owners in the city by getting all public servants back to work, back in the office, five days a week?
Mr PEARSON (Essendon—Assistant Treasurer, Minister for Regulatory Reform, Minister for Government Services, Minister for Creative Industries) (14:33): I thank the member for their question. Look, the Victorian public service have played a really important role in supporting our response to the pandemic right from the start of the pandemic. We recognise the fact that they have been able to produce a really fantastic quality of work and quantity of work to guide us through this pandemic. The public health orders have been recently amended as of 11.59 pm on Friday night, and we will be working with our VPS to guide their return to the office in due course. It is important that we try and make sure that we get this right, but it is also important to note that this is not the only shot we have got in the locker. That is why I was joined by the Minister for Industry Support and Recovery yesterday to provide further announcements in relation to getting people back to our city, in terms of getting people to come back to eat, to drink, to see live music, to see theatre. These are investments we are making.
Mr Southwick: On a point of order, Speaker, this was a straightforward question, and on relevance I would ask you to bring the minister back to answering the question. The government has a lever to pull in terms of bringing the public sector back and leading by example. I would ask you to bring the minister back to answering the question about when he will be bringing the public sector back to work.
The SPEAKER: Order! The minister is being relevant to the question.
Mr PEARSON: Look, we have been very clear that we will have that hybrid approach to work. I think if you look at what Paul Guerra said yesterday, Paul Guerra indicated he believes that it is likely that we will have that hybrid model where you will come back to work for three days a week and you will spend two days a week working remotely. Indeed that provides a benefit, on average, and indeed that provides a broader network benefit not just for the CBD but for those communities where those workers live. This is about working closely with our workforce. Our VPS have done a fantastic job, and we are making sure that we support them in their transition back to work. We are also supporting our CBD as well with the revitalisation fund to try to get people back, because there are a number of different triggers that a government can pull, and that is exactly what we are going to do. But given the fact that those opposite have basically been taking the last two years off work or have only been interested in one job, we have been focused on supporting workers right across this metropolis, and that is why we support our VPS, that is why we will be supporting their transition back to work and that is why we are having a multilayered approach to this question.
Mr SOUTHWICK (Caulfield) (14:36): Clearly the minister has not visited the city and seen the ghost town that it is. On a supplementary—
Members interjecting.
The SPEAKER: Order! Members will come to order! Through the Chair.
Mr SOUTHWICK: With the Premier this morning saying, ‘With the two to three days average where we can, it is the government’s intent to return the public servants back to the office’, what is the timetable for returning the public service back to the office five days a week? Is there a plan, or is there just nothing at all? Are we just going to hope and see?
Mr PEARSON (Essendon—Assistant Treasurer, Minister for Regulatory Reform, Minister for Government Services, Minister for Creative Industries) (14:37): It probably sounded better when you tried that this morning in front of the mirror. But we are working with our VPS to bring them back in an orderly way. We are not going to be going out dragooning people back to the office. We want to work with them productively and constructively. As Paul Guerra indicated yesterday, he thought that the idea of having a hybrid model is the likely model going forward in relation to three days in the office, on average, and two days remotely. I think that the CBD is coming back. The Lord Mayor said yesterday the level of foot traffic in the city on the weekend was around 80 per cent of the previous levels. You just have to see the city is coming back to life. We will work constructively and collaboratively with our VPS. Our VPS have done a fantastic job to get us through this pandemic, and we will work closely with them going forward.