COVID-19
Mr QUILTY (Northern Victoria) (11:24): My question is for the Minister for Health. There are 16 000 applications pending approval from people waiting to enter Victoria from New South Wales. Most of these are Victorians just trying to get home. They have been stuck in New South Wales without a home for weeks. Many are unable to work and are paying for accommodation on top of their usual mortgage or rent. They are in a desperate situation caused entirely by this government. International human rights organisations describe people in these situations as internally displaced persons—refugees. These Victorians have a right to return home, and the Australian constitution supports this. State governments may not prevent free movement between states; any exception requires good reason and must be a proportionate response to be legal. Melbourne already has a significant COVID outbreak, yet even people who test negative for COVID are being refused permission to return home to Victoria. Minister, in what way is preventing COVID-negative Victorians from returning home a proportionate response?
Ms SYMES (Northern Victoria—Leader of the Government, Attorney-General, Minister for Emergency Services) (11:25): I will pass the question on to the Minister for Health, noting that it is asking for an opinion. But I am sure that we can provide further information about the measures that the Victorian government is undertaking to ensure that Victorians can get home. You would be aware of the new permit for Victorians that are currently on the New South Wales side of the border bubble and their ability to access a permit to return to other parts of Victoria, with strict conditions such as self-isolation. In relation to other Victorians that are in New South Wales, there is a national cabinet discussion around the returning of people to their homes across the country, and indeed these considerations look at the protection of the health of the states that people are returning to, hotel quarantine capacity and the like, but these are issues that are being discussed and advanced.
Mr QUILTY (Northern Victoria) (11:26): I thank the minister. As the minister just said, the government recently outlined new rules that may allow some of these people to get home. To apply for this permit you are required to be in the border area for 14 days. You must be able to isolate at home for 14 days, test negative to COVID and get your first dose of the vaccine. In effect these people have been locked out of their homes and the only way to get back home is to submit to getting a vaccine. There is no COVID prevention reason for this. Anyone returning to Victoria will not have COVID, and if they did have COVID getting the vaccine would not stop them bringing COVID to Victoria. There is no justification for requiring a first dose of vaccine as a condition for returning to your home. The government forces these people into a desperate situation and then abuses the vulnerability of the situation to coerce them into getting a vaccine. The Australian Immunisation Handbook makes it clear that consent is not valid in the presence of undue pressure, coercion or manipulation. Minister, what is the government’s justification for requiring Victorians to take the vaccine before allowing them back to their homes?