Rita Panahi: The chaotic contradictions in Victoria’s new COVID-19 rules
Victorians are living in a state of absurdity and contradictions, where those infected with COVID-19 are allowed to break quarantine while everyone else is suffering under the harshest lockdown imposed anywhere in Australia, writes Rita Panahi.
Rita Panahi
Don't miss out on the headlines from Rita Panahi. Followed categories will be added to My News.
We’re living in a state of absurdity.
As Victoria recorded its worst day yet on Thursday with 723 new coronavirus cases and 13 deaths, we learned of more logic-defying rules and regulations.
Victorians are suffering under the harshest lockdown imposed anywhere in Australia but those who have tested positive to COVID-19 are allowed to break quarantine to enjoy a stroll in the park or jog on the sidewalk.
Despite Premier Dan Andrews scolding Victorians who failed to self-isolate while waiting for their test results, never mind that many weren’t advised to isolate, it turns out even if you are a confirmed carrier of the highly infectious virus, you are still permitted to leave your residence, thanks to Victoria’s human rights charter.
Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton confirmed this week those infected with coronavirus were allowed to break quarantine, “otherwise it is detention and we do not have detention for cases in Victoria”, though he prefers people to exercise at home or in their garden. “People who have no garden and have no other option … have a right to exercise,” Sutton said.
“So the Victorian Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities is clear that if you are not giving people an option to exercise, then you are effectively putting them in prison and that is not something that can be done for a case of coronavirus or for anyone else for that matter.”
Good to know the rights of the infected few are being protected while more than five million people are in lockdown, many watching their livelihoods be destroyed, and suffering the mental health impact of financial hardship, coupled with separation from their loved ones.
And, if Victoria’s human rights charter — which also played a part in 30 per cent of tests being refused by overseas arrivals in hotel quarantine — can allow infected individuals to leave their premises, then why did it not protect those in public housing towers who were confined to their apartments during a strict lockdown earlier this month?
The absurdities don’t end there. Residents of Greater Geelong, Surf Coast, Moorabool, Colac Otway, Golden Plains and Queenscliffe shires will from midnight Thursday be banned from visiting each other’s homes, but will be able to catch up at a restaurant or the gym.
Now, I’m not advocating for more businesses to be forcibly shut but merely pointing out the incongruity of banning a friend or family member from dropping in for a socially distanced cuppa, but allowing a gathering at the local pub.
Much has been written about the Victorian government’s gross mismanagement of the hotel quarantine program that sparked this second wave, but it appears the state’s contact tracing system is also shambolic.
The Colac experience serves as an example of the inadequacies of the program, with close contacts of workers and students who tested positive not notified for more than a week. Dismayed locals have taken matters into their own hands, and initiated testing and self-isolation.
Local MP Richard Riordan believes “the incompetence of DHHS” could cost lives. “The lack of immediate contact tracing by the department has endangered lives and put enormous stress on individuals and families,” he said.
But you’ll be pleased to know that while hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Victorians who’ve been in contact with COVID-19 carriers haven’t been contacted, I received a call from a contact tracer last week; a lovely lady wanting to book my “day-11 test”.
Her records showed I’d been at the Austin Hospital, been in contact with a COVID-19 patient and was due for my day-11 test.
Only problem being that I haven’t been to the Austin for many years, haven’t been in contact with anyone with coronavirus and have no need to complete a test. The baffled contact tracer had the right name and number but just about every other detail was wrong.
Every single person who is not contact traced in a timely manner could be unwittingly spreading the virus to their family and work colleagues. The spin from the Premier and the CHO does not match the reality on the ground.
For reasons not adequately explained, Victoria rejected offers of Defence Force personnel from the federal government earlier this month, instead opting to again turn to the private sector to man the phones and help trace and monitor thousands of coronavirus patients and their close contacts.
From the very start of this pandemic, Victoria has had the harshest lockdown in Australia, was slowest to lift restrictions, and was alone in implementing a second lockdown.
All that hasn’t saved the state from recording more coronavirus cases and deaths than the rest of the country combined.
Lockdowns are not a substitute for competent governance.
IN SHORT
Marine physicist Peter Ridd has raised more than $460,000 in two days as he seeks to take his unfair dismissal case against James Cook University to the High Court. If you care about academic freedom, scientific inquiry and free speech, then stand with Professor Ridd.
Rita Panahi is a Herald Sun columnist