Abdicating Ministerial Responsibility
The Victorian Minister for Small Business was an apologist for the Chief Health Officer and not the advocate for small business in the State Parliament yesterday.
Across the state, the construction industry alone estimates it lost $455 million in revenue every day of the recent 5-day lockdown ordered by the Andrews Government because of a handful of coronavirus cases in Melbourne.
A Ballarat-based company, Haymes Paint, lost more than $500,000.
The Minister, Jaala Pulford, previously admitted to the parliament that she was not aware of the huge losses being felt even in her own hometown.
Again under question yesterday by the Member for Western Victoria, Bev McArthur, the Minister dismissed the concerns raised in an extraordinary letter to the Premier by an unpredecented consortium of 17 regional groups anxious about further statewide lockdowns.
The Minister told the parliament: “Mrs McArthur is inviting me to make some sort of public health ruling. I think it is perhaps best to leave that to the chief health officer…given that is the way this pandemic is being managed in Victoria.”
Mrs McArthur said it’s a response that smacks of incompetence and leaves regional Victoria vulnerable.
“The reliance on ‘health advice’ – that has never been made public – is acknowledgement that Victorian Ministers are abdicating all management responsibility of the pandemic.
“Government is about choices, it’s about taking advice from all sectors and deciding what is best for the community as a whole,” Mrs McArthur said.
“Public health advice will always be about public health – it is the job of Government to weigh that against the competing demands of other parts of society.
“Failing to do this isn’t just short-sighted, incompetent and damaging, it’s also anti-democratic: the government is hired and fired by the people – the CHO isn’t.
Minister Pulford was unable to suitably address the question about why regional businesses should ever trust Labor again and what her plan was for businesses should the virus numbers increase.
“…ignoring public health advice is very irresponsible and utterly foolhardy,” Ms Pulford said.
Mrs McArthur said the concerned organisations across regional Victoria should take no relief from the Minister’s answers in the Parliament.
“The one-size-fits-all lockdown mentality is lazy, destructive and stupid. It is not governing – it is failing to govern.
“The State of Emergency is not being created by the virus but by a reckless Government.
“The Andrews Government is the creator of avoidable emergencies – mental health problems, reduced education outcomes and massive economic losses,” she said.
03 March 2021