Kevin Andrews (Menzies, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I, too, rise to speak on the motion moved by the honourable member for Mallee. I note that, amongst other things, it recognises that metropolitan and regional Victorians continue to face significant limitations on their freedoms due to COVID-19 restrictions, commiserates with business owners forced to shut their doors, notes that many businesses will not survive continued lockdowns, and calls on the Victorian government to give Victorians their freedom back. It's some aspects of that part of the motion that I wish to address tonight.

At the outset, I welcome the report that there are now no active COVID-19 cases in Victoria and there have been no new locally acquired cases for 30 consecutive days. This has enabled the Victorian government to announce further easing of restrictions on 8 November, following the initial period of no locally acquired infections at the end of October. So, 30 days with no new reported cases, following a peak of cases in early August—685 cases on 4 August—case numbers in Victoria have declined steadily, with no new acquired cases. Despite low case numbers, the daily average number of tests conducted in Victoria has remained relatively high, at approximately 14,000 tests per day, with an increase through early November in response to the South Australian outbreak. This is a tribute to the people of Victoria. The people of Victoria acted overwhelmingly in a responsible manner in relation to this. Yes, there were some idiots who did things which nobody supports, but, overwhelmingly, the people of Victoria showed common sense and did what was needed to be done.

But there's a cost for this, and that's what the motion goes to, in part. There is the economic cost affecting businesses and the jobs of individuals. There is also the health cost, particularly the mental health cost that comes from this. In my electorate, I know of businesses—and I suspect every member from Victoria and possibly other parts of Australia knows of businesses—which have gone to the wall because of what's happened in the last few months. I know businesses that will not reopen after Christmas. They've been hanging on as best they can, but I know businesses that will not reopen in my electorate and in metropolitan Melbourne. This has had a devastating impact on businesses, jobs and individuals. Part of that impact has translated into health effects. Regrettably, I have had reports—and I suspect many others have too—virtually every week, from friends and associates about someone that they know who committed suicide. That's the reality, in terms of the depression and the desperation. Some of that is related to what I was talking about earlier, in terms of the impact this has had on jobs, businesses and, therefore, families and communities. There is a real impact from this, and it's not over yet, unfortunately.

The economic measures which the government has taken—JobKeeper and JobSeeker—have been important in trying to keep people in jobs, but of course they will come to an end at some stage and there's been some scaling back of that, so we're not out of the woods as far as this is concerned. Also, the measures in relation to health—putting more money into direct health supports, enabling telehealth, and things like that—are all good measures that have been taken over the last few months.

I want to conclude on this note. There were failures. I won't go through them tonight, but there were failures in terms of tracing and quarantining, particularly in Victoria. In terms of tracing, we've only just got the QR code approach that other states have had. We can't just forget these failures and say, 'We have to move on.' We must learn from the lessons. We need to ensure that, in future, if there are responses, they are proportionate to the risks, they are precise in their breadth and they are consistent in their application. Finally, I say that future policy responses should not pit one group of Australians against another. They should not pit people from metropolitan Melbourne against regional Victoria or people from Victoria against people from New South Wales or South Australia or any other state, for that matter. For the life of me, I can't imagine that the framers of the Constitution, who put section 92 in there to enable interstate trade freely, would have been in favour of restrictions on movement, unless it were very precise and for very good reasons. We must learn from the lessons of the last few months.

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