Playground ban a shameful episode in Covid response

Victorians have been repeatedly asked to follow government demands based on trust, but that trust vanished when kids enjoying a playground became a crime.

A sickness of secrecy has long plagued the decision making around Victoria’s pandemic response.

The government has repeatedly insisted it has been open and transparent at every turn.

At the same time it has fought to keep secret much of the advice used to impose ongoing restrictions and lockdown, six times, 6.5 million Victorians.

Right now it is stalling the release of public health advice used to implement its controversial playground ban.

There’s also the stubborn refusal to handover hundreds of pages of secret briefings relied upon to impose a snap lockdown in February.

The government has repeatedly insisted it has been open and transparent at every turn. Picture: Ian Currie

The Office of the Victorian Information Commissioner, effectively the state’s privacy watchdog, has ordered the release of the material saying it is most definitely in the public interest.

“Members of the community have a right to access documents that describe the background information con­sidered, the reasons, the legal basis for, and documents that record those decisions,” deputy commissioner Joanne Kummrow said.

The government has appealed that decision, arguing doing so risked jeopardising the trust between public officials and a minister. Bizarre.

The soon to expire state of emergency laws that have been in place since March last year have allowed an ongoing lack of transparency.

We’ve seen some modelling but, for the most part, have been kept in the dark as to how and why decisions have been made.

Victorians have been asked to time and again to surrender to the demands of the government on a trust basis.

Right now it is stalling the release of public health advice used to implement its controversial playground ban. Picture: Getty Images

To trust that everything is being done based on health advice, and that nothing is being done that isn’t absolutely essential.

But the trust placed in the government evaporated with the implementation of the bizarre ban that made it a crime for kids to play outdoors away from home.

A ban introduced, we were told, because of a suspicion about Covid transmission occurring at playgrounds.

Evidence of such a transmission was never established.

In reality the ban came about to punish fatigued parents who, after enduring five lockdowns, were manipulating the rules to meet up with friends and family at parks.

It was a shameful episode in Victoria’s pandemic response, born purely out of frustration.

Which might seek to explain why the government won’t release the advice it relied on to implement the ban.

Perhaps there simply is none.