David Van (Victoria, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

I rise today not to have an argument with the Victorian Premier but to say that the Premier wilfully misrepresented the facts in a media conference last week when he said that the PM 'forgot to order the vaccines'. The Premier knows full well that vaccines were ordered. The PM's media release of 5 November 2020 highlights that 134 million doses had been ordered. The Premier's wilful misrepresentation of the facts is just another political ploy by Mr Andrews. I can tell him now that Victorians see right through him, just as they have over his complete overreach for unfettered political power. No-one is arguing that states don't require emergency powers. However, he has had ample powers, which included parliamentary oversight, and he still managed to lock Victorians down for longer than any other place in the world. The powers he has put to the Victorian lower house are already the greatest power overreach Australia has ever seen.

The Victorian Bar says that the bill 'provides grossly insufficient Parliamentary supervision over the minister's exercise of that power'. The Bar and 60 eminent QCs say that the bill 'confers extremely broad and unchecked powers on authorised officers'. Now let's be clear: these officers are not sworn officers; they are a surge workforce on temporary contracts being paid approximately $90,000 a year. Mr Andrews's introduction of this bill is giving him totalitarian-like powers, and this shows why he has earned the nickname 'Dictator Dan'.