Victorians rang Governor Linda Dessau to intervene on lockdowns and ask for vaccine advice

Upset Victorians labouring under the world’s longest lockdown turned to an unlikely figure, hoping she would be their ally.

Victorians upset with the state government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic contacted the office of Victorian Governor Linda Dessau with complaints and inquiries, it can be revealed.

Calls included requests that the Governor intervene in public health regulations or legislation, while others sought information on Covid testing and vaccination.

Until recently a recorded message on the Government House phone line said: “Telephone calls offering opinions on the management of the pandemic in Victoria are not able to be returned”.

The message directed callers to the state Health Department or the coronavirus hotline.

Linda Dessau was asked to intervene on public health measures. Picture: Ian Currie

Pandemic measures such as closing playgrounds and enforcing mask-wearing outside, combined with overreach by police in dealing with protesters caused a groundswell of resentment against authorities.

From March 2020, Melbourne had six separate lockdowns comprising nearly nine months of restrictions to claim the title of world’s most locked down city.

An Office of Governor statement said that during the pandemic, the Governor received a variety of phone, email and letter communications from the public.

“As you can imagine, during the hardest times of the pandemic, some of these communications were from people who were upset about public health measures or worried about the emotional and financial wellbeing of themselves or others,” it said.

Complaints ranged from those upset with health measures to others worried about their financial wellbeing. Picture: Paul Jeffers

“In some cases people were asking the Governor to become involved in the detail of public health regulations or legislation, something which is of course not open to a Governor in Victoria’s system of parliamentary democracy.”

The statement said that in other cases, people contacted Government House believing it was a frontline government office or it could provide information about Covid testing, vaccination, and interstate and international border exemptions.

Top restaurant owner Chris Lucas asked Governor Dessau to recall state parliament as a “circuit breaker” during pandemic shutdowns in 2020.

“I felt that what he (Premier Daniel Andrews) was doing was unconstitutional, and she disagreed with me,” he said.

Victoria has recorded more than 3600 Covid deaths, the most of any state.

The pandemic state of emergency in Victoria was lifted on December 15, 2021.

A public safety order involving Covid management was declared on April 22, and is due to end on July 12.