Wednesday, 23 February 2022

Motions

COVID-19

Ms CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (11:55): I am pleased to rise and move, on behalf of Mr Davis:

That this house calls on the Andrews Labor government to immediately remove mandatory mask rules in all indoor settings, including primary schools and for hospitality and retail employees, and only mandate that masks be worn in special narrow settings, such as in health care.

This issue, which is plastered all over every single paper today, demonstrates just how out of touch this government is. You have got leading epidemiologists, leading doctors and others who are saying that the government’s decision to have kids at school from years 3 to 6 having to wear masks, when years 1 and 2 do not and the senior years do not, makes no sense. You have got mixed classes with kiddies in years 2 and 3, and half wear masks, half do not. How utterly idiotic. How ludicrous. What a stupid decision again by the Andrews government, who say it is based on health advice. Well, I would like to see the health advice, because we are not getting enough of that health advice through the Pandemic Declaration Accountability and Oversight Committee.

Mr Davis: Just making it up on the run.

Ms CROZIER: They are making it up on the run, Mr Davis. We have seen that with the backflips on the IVF bans. We have seen it with a whole range of other issues, where the chief health officer himself said he or his office did not make those decisions—increasing the crowds at the tennis, the IVF bans, the mandatory vaccinations. Yet this is a government again who know that they are out of touch with the community. They actually know that the community has moved on. They are saying, ‘Enough—we have had enough of these rules that apply in situations where there is no reason to’. Of course in health settings you want to protect the vulnerable by wearing a mask—it is highly reasonable; no-one is disputing that—but you have got leading epidemiologists and others saying, ‘This makes no sense’. In fact:

James Cook University professor of infectious diseases … Emma McBryde said she “can see no genuine reason” for keeping the mandate in place for that age group.

…

“We should be focusing on the people who are vulnerable at the moment, not the transmitters, because Covid is everywhere.

And it is. This government has no idea where COVID is. They ditched 100 000 PCR tests. They do not know the true numbers of how many Victorians have had COVID. We know that they are asking people to report, but people are not. As of today’s stats they are saying that there are 42 000 active cases. I actually do not know the number of cases that we have had—I have not got the latest stats with me—but what we do know is that the government stats on the number of people that have got COVID are way out. In fact it is probably close to a couple of million people in Victoria that have had COVID. Many will not have known they had COVID because they have carried the infection being asymptomatic, as we know. That is the nature of this virus, as we have learned over past the two years—the changing nature of the virus.

The rules and the diktats from this government from 2020 should not apply. They are trying to juggle and let go of restrictions in dribs and drabs, saying, ‘We’re giving your freedoms back’. Well, these are freedoms that Victorians cherish. They have done the right thing: they have gone out in droves and got vaccinated. But the government has made these on-the-run policies like banning playgrounds, putting a curfew in place—nothing based on health advice; it was all made up.

Mr Gepp interjected.

Ms CROZIER: It is not rubbish, Mr Gepp. The chief health officer will release the health advice. President, through you, I will take up Mr Gepp’s interjection and ask that the government release all of the health advice from the past two years. None of that has been provided—none of it. We know that. We have been fighting for it. Mr Davis has been fighting for it in VCAT. We have been fighting for it, asking this government for that advice. If Mr Gepp wants to interject, then his government, which he is a member of—

Business interrupted pursuant to sessional orders.