The mad decisions Daniel Andrews’ team keep making must stop
The Andrews’ government keeps making decisions everyday Victorians know are madness. Coronavirus positive patients allowed to exercise, guests leaving quarantine without testing. How long can this go on, asks James Campbell.
James Campbell
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What the hell is going on in Victoria?
Melbourne is under a curfew, industry is on the brink, we can’t travel more than 5km from home and we’re free for an hour of exercise.
Yet a week ago Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton stunned us with the news that until now people who had tested positive for coronavirus were being allowed out among the community for exercise because “the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities is pretty clear that if you aren’t giving people an option to exercise then you are effectively putting them in prison and that’s not something that can be done for a case of coronavirus”.
Victorians watching at home literally fell off their armchairs with a collective cry of “this is madness, it has to stop”. But nothing happened.
Instead for days the Premier expressed shock and dismay that more than 800 positive people doorknocked by authorities weren’t at home.
It was only yesterday, finally, this loophole the size of the MCG was closed and the infectious made to take their fresh air in the backyard or on the veranda. Never mind that as the Premier was announcing the belated change, the DHHS website was still saying it was OK to exercise if positive. It’s nuts. But it’s not the “only-in-Victoria” moment we’ve had in the past few months. It’s not the first time we’ve screamed at the TV, “this is madness, it has to stop’’.
Who can forget the time back in June when Annaliese van Diemen — since moved on — announced 30 per cent of people were leaving quarantine hotels without being tested because the state government didn’t have the power to force them? But no testing was apparently OK because, as she explained, “the evidence remains that we’re not seeing cases in our community that — for want of a better word — have leaked out of hotel quarantine. We’re just not seeing them”.
Not only was this ridiculous, it was wrong on both counts: cases were leaking out with catastrophic consequences and, as then national chief medic Brendan Murphy quickly clarified, states had the power to force people to be tested. Victoria belatedly followed his advice a couple of days later. We now know that within 24 hours of the quarantine program starting back in March, senior bureaucrats pleaded with DHHS to make sure police were present at the hotels 24/7. Instead, the madness of the security guard shambles carried on, fuelling our second wave. Then there were on-again, off-again requests for help from the ADF. In late June, we were supposed to be getting 1000 ADF personnel but this was quickly scaled back to a few hundred for reasons that have never been satisfactorily explained. Most people would have thought common sense — a favourite phrase of the Premier — would dictate that in a crisis like this you should take any help you are offered when it is offered. Not apparently in Victoria.
No doubt the purpose of the Premier’s long and sombre daily press conferences is to reassure us that everything is in hand. But the cumulative effect of watching months of screw-ups and backflips as the numbers of infections rise while the community tracing program is overwhelmed, has been the opposite. And as for Health Minister Jenny Mikakos refusing to answer questions in parliament because she didn’t think she should be there, you can only scream. Victoria likes to think it’s better than the rest of the country. But it’s becoming clear that large big slabs of our state government are not fit for purpose. Seriously, they’re only banning the infected from exercising NOW? This is madness and it has to stop.
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