Shannon Deery: First glimpse at pandemic oversight committee not promising

Anyone hoping parliament’s new pandemic oversight committee would bring with it any real accountability best not get ahead of themselves.

Victorians have had their first glimpse at the state parliament’s new pandemic oversight committee.

Anyone hoping it would bring with it any real accountability best not get ahead of themselves – at least if day one is any indication.

Ostensibly the new Pandemic Declaration Accountability and Oversight Committee carries great powers beyond simply the reviewing of pandemic orders.

It can also recommend changes to orders and refer matters to Victorian ombudsman Deborah Glass for investigation.

Essentially, it can report to parliament if it considers that a pandemic order is out of line with legislation, or infringes on human rights.

It can also recommend orders be scrapped.

Of course, actually having that happen is a whole other matter which requires an absolute majority of both houses of parliament.

That the first 10 minutes of the very first hearing was wasted on whining that chief health officer Brett Sutton was appearing via video link, and not in person, is indicative of the farce that has come to embody similar cross-party parliamentary committees.

Brett Sutton appeared before parliament’s new pandemic oversight committee. Picture: David Crosling

In the Covid era, appearances online at anything from school to court hearings are a readily accepted way of life.

National cabinet meets online, doctors diagnose online, job interviews are conducted online, even swimming lessons (most dubiously) have been held online.

And yet the first order of business by the state opposition was to quibble over why they could see Sutton, but not touch him.

One wonders if this was a sanctioned game plan, or an on-the-fly error of judgment that left some Liberals scratching their heads.

On Sunday Opposition leader Matthew Guy drove an ever-increasing wedge between his party and the government that has set them on wildly different roads toward the election.

While Daniel Andrews is talking up further booster mandates and ongoing restrictions, Guy promised the exact opposite.

He’s vowed to rule out booster mandates, scrap density limits and get workers back in the office.

He also wants to change the way we use QR codes, in high-risk settings only, and has promised no future lockdowns under any circumstances.

Mask rules would change as well, with mandates to wear them only in high-risk settings like healthcare, public transport and in schools for staff and secondary students.

In a bid to increase Victoria’s stalled booster rollout, Guy says the state government must also immediately redirect its major project advertising into a “comprehensive” vaccination advertising campaign.

“Victorians won’t recover and rebuild under more back-to-the-future mandates, lockdowns and restrictions. Now is the time for a new approach,” Guy says.

“For two years, families and local communities have trusted the system and followed the rules. Now is the time for the government to trust them and let them get on with their lives.

“Victorians need a new approach that treats them with respect and backs them – not berates them – to make the right choices.”

Opposition leader Matthew Guy. Picture: Sarah Matray

It’s a bold policy position.

And one that should appeal to many who are tired of ongoing government intervention in their lives.

But as long as his MPs play games like the one that kicked off events at the oversight committee on Monday, no one will take much notice.

Just when will politicians start to realise that when you argue just for the sake of arguing it undermines everything else you have to say?

Prof Sutton had much to say of interest.

He was grilled on QR codes and almost conceded they were doing not much any more.

He freely admitted he gave no advice regarding the pausing of elective surgery or IVF treatments.

He also revealed social considerations overrode health risks when it came to lifting the crowd cap at the Australian Open.

And he told us he’d not yet been asked for his opinion on mandating further vaccine booster doses, despite the Premier flagging the move was coming.

All of that came about because of effective questioning by opposition and independent MPs.

Aside from that, as usual, government MPs tossed easy questions that merely contributed to a ludicrous charade disguised as oversight.

But foolish games by the opposition means that any ability to call Sutton out, or the orders in place, were undermined before he even opened his mouth.

Which does not bode well for the committee’s work going forward.

Or the much-needed effective oversight of the orders that continue to restrict us.

Shannon Deery is Herald Sun state politics editor