The chairman of biotechnology company CSL, Brian McNamee, said it was "radically wrong" for Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews to extend emergency COVID-19 powers, saying his handling of the virus had not "earned or deserved" the right to crush people's civil liberties.

Melbourne-based Dr McNamee, whose company is developing a vaccine for COVID-19, encouraged other Victorians to speak up about the state government's authoritarian overreach and failure to give due weight to the economic and social damage inflicted by lockdowns.