Questions That Need To Be Answered
The cascading impacts of the Victorian Government’s coronavirus restrictions on the state demand serious questions be asked and answered.
The Liberal Member for Polwarth, and Deputy Chair of the Public Accounts and Estimates Committee (PAEC), Richard Riordan, has called for the re-opening of the Inquiry into the Victorian Government’s COVID-19 response.
It is a move strongly supported by his Western Victoria Region colleague, Bev McArthur.
Mrs McArthur said accountability in Government must be upheld.
“Restaurant owners describe the diabolical financial destruction caused by the lockdowns as a ‘Chernobyl style meltdown’.
“Victorians don’t deserve endless claims about science and best medical evidence.
“They deserve hard facts, truth, proportionality and financial competency – all things that have eluded the Andrews Government,” Mrs McArthur said.
An Upper House Inquiry chaired by Reason Party MP, Fiona Patten, failed to achieve clarity on many fronts. The Government has equally swerved innumerable questions and motions seeking documents that have been raised in the Legislative Council.
“That’s why PAEC’s ability to question and demand evidence is critical to getting the answers Victorians deserve and to which they are entitled.”
Mr Riordan’s sustained questioning last year was key to PAEC’s ability to reveal the costs of hotel quarantine and the ‘I don’t recall your Honour’ Coate Inquiry: an inquiry that cost Victorian taxpayers $5.7 million for the Inquiry itself and $12.3 million for the legal bill for Government Ministers, including the Premier, to justify total amnesia.
“But much has happened since then, including Lockdown 4.0,” said Mrs McArthur.
“Of current alarm are the secret discussions that the Andrews Government is holding with the Upper House crossbench members to introduce pandemic laws.
“These are the MPs who backed the 9-month State of Emergency extension until December 16 this year.
“In case being under the grotesquely inept Labor Government wasn’t enough – now it would seem we are going to be at the behest of the Animal Justice Party (AJP), the Greens and Fiona Patten,” Mrs McArthur said.
“Who are these people?
“Well Andy Meddick’s AJP care more for the feelings of animals than they do the mental health of people in aged care lockdown without visitors, businesses going to the wall, children not attending school and constituents - in Mr Meddick’s own electorate - who have been locked out of normal living with never a COVID case in sight.
“In an act of clear racial discrimination, the Greens want police to write down a racial description of who they stop and question in the streets.
“They also want `disadvantaged’ Victorians to be exempted from any coronavirus fines.
“So much for being equal before the law. No fines will be a green light to the rallying mobs with woke causes who care nought for the real issues affecting citizens in lockdowns.
“And Fiona Patten is busy celebrating her successful push for a second drug injecting facility in Melbourne.
“If ever there was a need for greater scrutiny in Victoria – that time is now.
“It is critical Mr Riordan’s push for the PAEC Inquiry to re-open is supported.
“In the absence of accountability and honesty – this parliamentary investigative mechanism is paramount.”
The questions to be answered in the PAEC inquiry include:
What are the reasons for the further hotel quarantine breaches?
Why were quarantine hotels paid millions to never host a return traveller?
Why were quarantine employees paid a full salary to not work a single day?
What were the circumstances that enabled the Novotel’s Manager, and Head of Infection Control, to breach infection control measures 51 times before being sacked?
What are the circumstances that enabled the COVID-19 Quarantine Victoria’s general manager to breach COVID protocols and was stood down only after the details were made public?
Why has there been in increase in the number of phone calls to Beyond Blue during the `Valentine’s Day’ 5-day lockdown and Lockdown 4?
What explanation is given for COVID lockdowns impacting Victorian children more than children in other states?
Why are nearly 5000 prisoners entitled to early prison release?
What explanation is given for Crime Statistics Agency 2020 figures that show significant jumps in family violence, drug and sex offences during lockdowns?
Why were Brisbane travellers incorrectly quarantined?
Why was the ‘nebuliser man’ blamed for the third outbreak when this was clearly incorrect?
What were the flaws in hotel quarantine found by epidemiologists and hygienists?
When will WorkSafe Victoria be prosecuting the Premier, Ministers and Government Departments for the lives lost through the Hotel Quarantine disaster?
How could wrong exposure sites be publicly announced?
On what grounds does the Premier claim Victoria’s hotel quarantine to be of ‘higher standards’ compared with other states?
15 June 2021