Victorian Covid response slammed by Australian Human Rights Commission

Five years on from Covid, Australia’s human rights body has delivered a scathing verdict on Victoria’s response to the pandemic.

Victoria was the worst impacted by harsh restrictions during the pandemic, and the community faces long-term damage from school closures and harsh lockdowns, a damning new study has found.

Collateral Damage, a report by the Australian Human Rights Commission, was released on Tuesday, almost five years after the start of the pandemic.

It singled out Victoria as the Australian territory that experienced the harshest pandemic rules and warned against similar heavy-handed responses in future emergencies.

The report found that Victorians were the least likely to agree that governments had handled the pandemic well.

More than half of Victorians also felt that restrictions had been in place for too long.

The damning document canvassed all of the strict measures rolled out under the Daniel Andrews Government and warned that people’s basic human rights were an “afterthought” and warned against a “one-size fits-all-approach” in the future.

Medical staff wearing PPE holding material about to walk into the Flemington Public housing flats in 2020. Picture: Asanka Ratnayake

“Australia’s overall COVID-19 mortality rate was relatively low from a global perspective, and our economic performance during the pandemic was comparatively strong. But that is not the full picture,” Lorraine Finlay Human Rights Commissioner said in the report.

“During the pandemic, Australians had to live with significant restrictions on our human rights.

Measures such as international and interstate border closures, hotel quarantine, lockdowns, school closures, restrictions in aged care homes, vaccine mandates and mask mandates had a substantial – and often hidden – human cost that is outlined in this report.”

The report singled out restrictions on aged care, hospital visits, and funeral attendance, saying the inflexible restrictions lacked “compassion.”

It’s found that people with disabilities and fleeing domestic violence suffered, especially under the restrictions.

The commission was critical of the lockdown of housing towers in Melbourne’s inner city during outbreaks, saying it was an obvious infringement on fundamental human rights.

Police stop and question drivers at a checkpoint in 2020. Picture: David Gray

Concerns about police enforcement of on-the-spot fines, especially involving children, the implications on mental health of school shutdowns and the heavy impact on First Nations Australians and minority ethnicities were also raised.

The report specifically discussed the case of a Ballarat mum accused of breaching public health orders during Victoria’s Covid lockdown.

Zoe Buhler, 30, was accused of using social media to organise a protest against state government lockdown rules between August 31 and September 2 2020, but two years later, the charges were dropped.

The Commission report said the law enforcement response to the case did “not appear to be in proportionate responses to legitimate health concerns”.

The findings called for a statewide and nationwide framework on how to respond to emergency situations in the future, including pandemics, floods, and bushfires, identifying responses that do not infringe on basic human rights.