Wednesday, 18 March 2020

Questions without notice and ministers statements

COVID-19

Mr M O’BRIEN (Malvern—Leader of the Opposition) (11:01): My question is to the Premier. Premier, people in the community are scared. In metropolitan Melbourne supermarkets are empty of many basic food and hygiene products. In the last 48 hours busloads of people have arrived in country supermarkets, stripping shelves bare of basic necessities. What steps will the government take to ensure that all Victorians will be able to go to their local supermarket and buy basic food and hygiene products?

Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (11:01): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. In the first instance I want to direct the Leader of the Opposition to the very strong comments, fully supported by our government and hopefully all fair-minded Australians, made by the Prime Minister today. It is simply unacceptable to be hoarding. There is no need for people to go to the supermarket and buy two months worth of groceries from the A to Z of their shopping list. It is appropriate to go and buy some of the additional staples that you might need.

A member interjected.

Mr ANDREWS: On the issue that the member raised, I would direct her to announcements that were made some time ago and the practice of Department of Health and Human Services staff. Where people for whatever reason find themselves without those staples, we are going to have delivered to them a care package that has the essentials in it. That is already occurring. That has already occurred, and I will have more to say about a scaling up of those—

Mr Riordan interjected.

The SPEAKER: The member for Polwarth is warned.

Mr ANDREWS: We will have more to say about scaling that up and the arrangements for delivery.

Mr Riordan interjected.

The SPEAKER: The member for Polwarth will leave the chamber for 1 hour.

Member for Polwarth withdrew from chamber.

Mr ANDREWS: As I said, I will have more to say about those important arrangements. But again I stress that that is already occurring now for a number of people who for a range of reasons found themselves in home quarantine, isolating, but without some of the basics. We are already doing that and we will do more of that, and we will have more to say about that very soon. Those arrangements are well and truly in place.

The third point I would make is that I want to thank those from the Australian Food and Grocery Council and individual retailers, whether it be Woolworths, Coles, Aldi, IGA and others. My office and officials across that part of the public service—public health experts—are speaking with each of those retailers. It is important for us just to pause for a moment to say thank you for special arrangements for the vulnerable in our community so pensioners, people who have those unique needs, can go and shop, and to shop on their own for a period of time; revised operating hours; buying limits that have been put in place in terms of those basic household items. I want to thank those retailers for having made those proactive decisions. They have all been made in consultation with our government—very deeply. We are in constant communication with those retailers and others. We are assured that there are sufficient supplies. Getting those to distribution points is a challenge—we freely recognise that. Any support that can be provided by the government will be.

Again, I just want to take the Leader of the Opposition to the other important point. Last night at the national cabinet these issues were discussed. They will be discussed again, and a national response, which I believe to be the appropriate response, will be delivered at the appropriate time.

Mr M O’BRIEN (Malvern—Leader of the Opposition) (11:04): Will the Premier join with me in calling for online marketplaces such as Amazon, Gumtree, Facebook and eBay to ban people who price gouge their fellow Victorians through the sale of basic food and hygiene products at rip-off prices during this crisis?

Mr ANDREWS (Mulgrave—Premier) (11:05): Firstly, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. His first question related to the supply of essentials. The second question relates to a different matter. I would simply to say to him that the national cabinet—a cabinet of unity and a cabinet where it is not about Labor and Liberal; it is a cabinet about doing what has to be done to keep people safe and to protect those people that are most vulnerable and to be in a resilient position to recover from this unprecedented health emergency—has considered some of these matters and no doubt will again consider those matters.

There is a meeting scheduled for Friday morning. That was to be in Melbourne; I think that now will be done by distance, which is the appropriate thing to do. It is something we call upon all Victorians to do where they can, and I will say a bit more about that in a moment. No-one should be taking advantage of these unprecedented circumstances. Instead we should all of us be coming together, because it is together that we will get through this unprecedented emergency. We have a plan, we are working hard, and with the help of every Victorian we will get through this.