Wednesday, 8 June 2022

Independent Pandemic Management Advisory Committee

Mr QUILTY (Northern Victoria) (18:15): (1976) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Health. Under the current pandemic legislation the government is supposed to convene an Independent Pandemic Management Advisory Committee. The committee was formed back in February and is supposed to provide advice to the government regarding the use of pandemic powers. Since then it has been radio silence. We have not heard a thing from the committee. The Liberal Democrats were sceptical about the value of this committee. We guessed that the committee would be stacked with government-friendly appointments and would exist only to provide justification for government use of emergency powers and to pretend this justification was independent. It is safe to say we had low expectations, yet somehow the pandemic management committee has managed to sink below even those. The committee website takes care to note the committee is not conducting any community or stakeholder consultations. One wonders if they are doing anything at all. Their ceramic turtle impersonation continues.

We have had vaccine mandates, mask requirements and isolation orders for months since the committee was formed, and we are yet to get a shred of evidence on how any of these policies are working. The committee say that it is not their job to interrogate the evidence supporting health directions and instead it is their job to provide contemporary advice to help the minister make decisions. This is worrying on two counts: (1) it shows the committee does not consider the evidence to be relevant to the advice that they give around health directions; and (2) it shows that the committee thinks that the advice provided for emergency decisions made three months in the past is contemporary advice. Minister, the action I seek is for you to inquire into and report back to the Parliament on what the Independent Pandemic Management Advisory Committee has been doing.