Melbourne’s Covid rules threaten to create division between police, community

The latest Covid rules are creating tensions within police ranks, with one officer saying enforcement has become “very draining”.

Police have slammed an order for officers to patrol playgrounds, saying it is not why they joined the force.

The Police Association has launched an astonishing ­attack on the edict to monitor shuttered playgrounds, skateparks and basketball courts under Melbourne’s hardened lockdown, which also reimposed the 9pm-5am curfew.

Secretary Wayne Gatt said: “The rule makers don’t often hear the criticism first-hand. The enforcers of those rules, though, certainly do.

“Police are now tasked with enforcing a curfew that no one has welcomed, and to prevent families from going to playgrounds that bring them joy.”

Mr Gatt said he feared the standing of police could be eroded if children asked why they couldn’t go to the park and were told “the police will arrest you”.

“None of our 18,000-plus members will ever want to go to work to take someone away from a playground,” he said. “They are not robots.”

Police have slammed an order for officers to patrol playgrounds Picture: Tim Carrafa

Victoria Police is yet to give officers formal instructions on how to enforce the ruling if they find children or parents at playgrounds. However, Chief Commissioner Shane Patton on Tuesday made no apology for police playground patrols, warning fines would be issued for blatant and deliberate breaches.

“Be in no doubt, from here on we will be increasing enforcement activities,” he said.

Individuals face on-the-spot fines of up to $1817 for breaching restrictions.

Former police chief commissioner Kel Glare also said ramped-up restrictions threatened to create division between police and the community. “Police don’t get to choose what laws they enforce. I don’t think the response is proportionate to the risk,” Mr Glare said.

Members of Victoria Police said enforcing the ever-changing Covid rules has become “very draining”.

One fed-up officer wrote to the union: “The longer this goes on, the riskier it becomes. Are we really expected to clear playgrounds? It’s very difficult not to induce fear and anxiety in people who know they are doing the wrong thing but need to get out of their homes.”

Police attend a protest outside Parliament House on Tuesday. Picture: Mark Stewart

Fifty of Victoria’s 225 local active cases are children aged under 10, with one instance of outdoor transmission between two students walking home together.

Chief health officer Professor Brett Sutton on Tuesday defended the decision to close playgrounds, saying authorities were investigating whether a child had been ­infected at one.

“It’s not definitive and maybe we’ll not be able to make it definitive, but it looks like there’s been transmission in a playground,” he said.

“We want to minimise every single opportunity (for transmission) in order to get ahead of this.”

But child psychologist Deborah Jepsen said there was “no justification whatsoever” to close playgrounds.

“The psychological distress is huge. Kids need to get outside and play,” she said.

“This will have long-term mental health and wellbeing issues far beyond what can be imagined at this point.”

Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien said it was “cruel” to close playgrounds for children already forced to learn from home.

Victorian students have lost up to two terms of face-to-face learning since the pandemic began – the most of any state – as well as having sport, theatre events, camps and other activities repeatedly cancelled.

“Not every family has a big backyard. Not every family has opportunities for kids to run around, that playground is five minutes of sunshine in a pretty dark day for a lot of kids,” Mr O’Brien said.

“This government needs a real plan to tackle Covid – not kneejerk responses, not overreaches – because it’s not helping, it’s only hurting.”

One police officer said enforcing the ever-changing Covid rules has become “very draining”. Picture: Jason Edwards

Liberty Victoria president Julia Kretzenbacher called on the state government to release expert advice which led to the closure of playgrounds, saying any restrictions needed to be proportionate. She said making compliance easier was not a “proper reason” for imposing restrictions.

Some epidemiologists have questioned the direct health benefit of the curfew but Premier Daniel Andrews said it was not for him “to prove the efficacy of any one measure”. “No one has ever maintained that any one measure is the way out of this, so therefore it is not for me to provide hard data that establishes that,” he said.

Hours later, former deputy chief medical officer Nick Coatsworth tweeted: “Amazing how certain among us can unpick the effects of mandatory outdoor mask wearing from a bundle of interventions and then be incapable of unpicking the ­effect of a curfew from the same bundle. Now that is science at work.”