Wednesday, 8 June 2022

COVID-19

Mr QUILTY (Northern Victoria) (12:11): My question is for the minister representing the Minister for Health. Minister, what is this government waiting for before it ends the pandemic declaration? The continued use of emergency powers shows that this government does not understand what an emergency is. It shows once again that government cannot be trusted with these powers and that reform of emergency powers is essential to protect Victorians against their government. Once a government has power it holds onto it as long as it can. The current use of emergency powers is having a marginal effect at best, and it has been that way for months. We have zero effective oversight of the use and abuse of the powers; the Independent Pandemic Management Advisory Committee is still asleep at the wheel. There is no reason the government could not put rules before the Parliament and have us vote on them instead of relying on the emergency powers. It is time to end the pandemic declaration and go back to government as normal.

Ms TIERNEY (Western Victoria—Minister for Training and Skills, Minister for Higher Education) (12:12): I thank the member for the question. Whilst it would be, I think, very tempting to deal with some of those very wild allegations in the lead-up to his question, I will resist on this occasion and will refer this question to the Minister for Health.

Mr QUILTY (Northern Victoria) (12:12): Almost all Victorians have been vaccinated, yet the government insists that we are still in a COVID emergency. Clearly the vaccine is not as effective as we had hoped. With an effective vaccine a 95 per cent vaccination rate would have ended the emergency, but if the vaccination is not very effective then it destroys the justification for continuing to persecute the small unvaccinated minority. The current primary use of the emergency powers is to ban unvaccinated Victorians from working. At this point the only effect of these powers is to punish people out of spite. The health advice held up as Holy Scripture to justify all the emergency measures for the last two years now says there is no longer a justification—

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Order! I cannot hear the member’s question. Can we have some quiet, please.

Mr QUILTY: The health advice held up as Holy Scripture to justify the emergency measures over the last two years now says there is no longer a justification for these work mandates. Mandates should not be continued for the sake of spite, and they should not be allowed to become permanent. Minister, tell us when you will end the COVID vaccine work mandates.

Members interjecting.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I interrupted his question to try and quieten people down. I did not notice the clock run out, so Mr Quilty did ask his question.

Ms Tierney: Can I have the question again then?

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: Yes. Can we have the question without assistance so that we can all hear it, please.

Members interjecting.

Ms Pulford: On a point of order, Deputy President, can we have some consistency around interjections? I had constant interjection from Mr Ondarchie and other members during my ministers statement, so if Mr Quilty gets another go, I would not mind one either.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: I call Mr Quilty to rephrase his question.

Members interjecting.

Mr QUILTY: Perhaps if people listened, they would hear the question. Minister, tell us when you will end the COVID vaccine work mandates.

Ms Shing: On a point of order, Deputy President, you were asked through Minister Pulford to actually rule on a point of order that she has raised. You have not done so, and I would ask that perhaps you would turn your attention to that before Mr Quilty gets back to his question.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: If we could have quiet for everybody’s contribution, it would help and we will have consistency. I will continue to call people to account. It was extremely loud during Mr Quilty’s question. I could hear Minister Pulford; I could not hear Mr Quilty. We will seek to have consistency by asking everyone to be heard in silence. I call Mr Quilty to just ask the question part of his question, please.

Mr QUILTY: Minister, tell us when you will end the COVID vaccine work mandates.

Mr Gepp: On a point of order, Deputy President, I thought a supplementary question was supposed to be a bit different from the substantive question, but I am not seeing any difference between the initial question that Mr Quilty asked and his supplementary.

Mr QUILTY: On the point of order, Deputy President, perhaps if Mr Gepp listened he would be able to hear the difference between them. Apparently not.

The DEPUTY PRESIDENT: The questions have to be related, and they do seem to be related.

Ms TIERNEY (Western Victoria—Minister for Training and Skills, Minister for Higher Education) (12:17): They are related—not just once, not just twice but triple the wild allegation doses before you actually get to a question. But given that you finally did get to a question, the answer is that I will refer it to the Minister for Health.