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

There's a large park a few blocks from where I live in Melbourne. It's a very popular park, especially with the many recently migrated families who live in the area, many in old semidetached apartments that were constructed in the 1950s. For these families, the park is the only place of recreation for their children, which is why Premier Dan Andrews's bans are so destructive to the social life of these people.

I ask: is the Victorian Premier so cruelly uncaring, or has his totalitarian impulse to control the minutia of our lives become overwhelming? His so-called easing of restrictions is a farce. People, for example, who are fully vaccinated and who have had numerous negative COVID tests, cannot even return home from interstate and quarantine for 14 days at home. A week ago I described to colleagues from interstate the mood of Victorians as quietly desperate. Today, I would say it is rising anger. Stop corralling fear, Premier Andrews, and start trusting the people of Victoria.