Adem Somyurek returns to parliament to block Andrews government’s pandemic Bill

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy has offered to help come up with a more “sensible piece of legislation” after the pandemic Bill debate sensationally stalled.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy has vowed to offer his “hand of cooperation” to the government in a bid to put a “sensible piece of legislation” through parliament.

It comes as the controversial pandemic management Bill was thrown into disarray with former government MP Adem Somyurek revealing he would block it.

The government on Thursday successfully moved to delay debate of its pandemic management Bill, buying it some more time to try and secure one desperately needed vote to avoid seeing it defeated.

A vote to delay the motion until later on Thursday was upheld 20-17, with Adem Somyurek not in the house to vote on the motion.

Opposition Leader Matthew Guy says the government needs to go back to the drawing board. Picture: David Crosling

And Mr Guy said it was now clearer than ever that the government needed to “go back to the drawing board”.

“I’m perplexed as to why the government wants to fight,” he said.

“To date, we’ve had nothing from the government except insults, threats, division and fighting. “That is not the kind of government Victoria needs beyond this pandemic.

“Now is not the time to divide and conquer, it is the time to come together for the sake of our state and get sensible legislation for Victorians.”

Mr Guy said the government should have consulted more widely with upper house MPs ahead of the vote.

“This was always going to end in tears when you choose to negotiate with three out of 23,” he said.

“It’s perplexing why the government managed its upper house so poorly.

“We need a government that actually wants to work with the parliament, to respect that no one has a majority in the upper house. That is the best way forward from today.”

Despite the majority of crossbenchers claiming they weren’t engaged in consultation efforts, Mr Andrews maintained that the government had worked collaboratively.

“We engage with all members of the legislative council. They’ve got a job to do, they will work through this Bill line by line and we’ll wait and see what the legislative council gives us.

“We don’t have the majority in the legislative council. I’m confident that we’ll get an outcome. The exact nature of that outcome, we have to wait and see. That’s the nature of a very diverse Chamber.

“Let’s have the most respectful, the most inclusive process we can.”

Premier Daniel Andrews may now be forced to rethink the Bill. Picture: Getty Images

Premier Daniel Andrews on Thursday conceded the government did not have the numbers to push the new laws through.

“We don’t have the numbers in the upper house, we’ll just do our normal thing which is to work with everybody and try and get an outcome that keeps us safe,” he told reporters.

“I don’t know whether this matter will get resolved today, tonight or tomorrow - we’ll have to wait and see.”

Without the legislation, government officials won’t be able to impose lockdowns, limits on movement or mandatory mask-wearing rules once the state of emergency expires on December 15.

“Some rules will be very important with how we treat and protect and safeguard people who have the virus,” Mr Andrews said.“If not, we lose our power, we lost our ability to guarantee that.”

SOMYUREK TO BLOCK BILL

Mr Somyurek on Wednesday night told the Herald Sun he would sensationally return to parliament to oppose the Bill, saying it gives “too much power to the government” and could lead to a “tyranny of rule by decree”.

Victoria was already “essentially an elective dictatorship”, he added, saying the bill does not include adequate checks to prevent abuses of power.

The government had assumed it would win the upper house vote scheduled for Thursday with the support of three crossbench MPs it secured a deal with on Monday.

But Mr Somyurek’s decision as he returns to parliament for just the second time since June 2020 will mean the government will fall short of a majority, providing the eight other crossbenchers – who have already committed to opposing the Bill – vote against it. In that scenario, the Bill will fail.

Adem Somyurek will block his former party’s controversial Bill. Picture: AAP

Attorney-General Jaclyn Symes hit the phones late Wednesday night in a desperate 11th-hour bid to help save the government’s scuppered Bill.

Ms Symes personally phoned members of the crossbench to try to secure one more desperately needed vote.

Speculation about Mr Somyurek’s intentions on Wednesday prompted suggestions the government would delay the critical vote until the next sitting of parliament, in two weeks, rather than risk the embarrassment of such a high-profile loss.

That would give it time to win over at least one more crossbencher, but would likely involve massive concessions being made.

If the government cannot force the Bill through in the next two weeks before the state of emergency expires, it will not be able to enforce any pandemic orders.

Mr Somyurek said he had been moved to return due to concerns there was inadequate independent scrutiny built into the controversial Bill and it could lead to unjust government and “despots”.

“Had I continued to be a member of the Andrews cabinet, I would have argued around the cabinet table that this bill is a bad idea because it gives too much power to the government,” he said.

Mr Somyurek has attended parliament just once since he was booted out of the Labor Party and joined the crossbench amid branch stacking allegations in June last year.

But on Wednesday he provided evidence to parliament of his vaccination status in order to be able to attend again, triggering a “meltdown”, according to one MP.

Mr Somyurek said that parliamentary committees operating along strict party lines could not provide adequate scrutiny of future pandemic orders, as they were proposed to do under the Bill.

“As a person that has been at the forefront of enforcing party discipline, I can tell you that the merit of the issue under consideration is what the Premier’s Private Office says it is,” he said.

Protesters camp out at parliament to protest the Bill. Picture: Jake Nowakowski

“I will not support this Bill in its current form, and I would encourage the government to go back to the drawing board and consult more broadly.”

The eight crossbenchers who have already vowed to vote against the Bill have expressed anger over being shut out of its drafting.

Only Greens MP Samantha Ratnam, Animal Justice’s Andy Meddick, and Reason Party leader Fiona Patten, were consulted and have flagged support for the Bill.

Under the proposed laws, which have already passed through the lower house, Premier Daniel Andrews would have the power to make a pandemic declaration and extend it in three-month blocks for as long as he considered it necessary.

The state’s chief health officer would be stripped of the ability to make special orders, with that power to be transferred to the health minister.

And a pandemic could be declared even if there had been no cases of a specific disease in Victoria for a period of time.

Ms Patten on Thursday morning slammed Mr Somyurek as “disingenuous”.

“This is the first time that I’ve seen Mr Somyurek take any interest in policy, he has always been a backroom party man,” Ms Patten said.

“He barely remembers the names of the people in the chamber. So the fact that he’s now showing some interest in democracy and in policy, I find somewhat disingenuous.”

The government was forced to wind back aspects of the original Bill amid concerns from legal bodies, human rights organisations and civil liberty groups. But Victoria’s peak legal bodies, the Victorian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Liberty Victoria and the state Ombudsman, have maintained their opposition to the revised Bill, saying amendments didn’t go far enough.

Ombudsman Deborah Glass warned the proposed changes still failed to provide a “greater level of independent oversight”.

A defiant Mr Andrews said on Tuesday he was confident the laws would pass on Thursday without further amendments.

He added on Wednesday: “In an environment where this pandemic is not over, none of us have the luxury to consult and consult and consult in order to achieve universal support”.