Tim Wilson (Goldstein, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Victorians are doing it tough right now. It's been a brooding winter. It's week 4 of stage 4, where people can only leave their homes for the supermarket and for exercise for an hour a day. Victorians are getting fines just for putting their bins out between the 8 pm and 5 am curfew.

As the Prime Minister correctly said, Victorians need hope and now is the time for reassuring leadership. The Andrews government has all but canned parliament, so there is no scrutiny. Compare the pair. We are here. The federal COVID-19 oversight committee is chaired by the opposition, with MPs from all sides. The Victorian COVID-19 oversight committee is chaired and dominated by Labor. Accountability isn't just about just politics; it's about stopping bad decisions being replicated. Instead, we get a premier talking down and issuing dictates from his bully pulpit and sneaky deals to extend the state of emergency without explanation.

Victorians know the virus is the enemy, and it's contemptuous to say it will all be over as soon as 'we obey the rules'. We did. It was your botched hotel quarantine that caused the second wave, and Victorians are paying the price. The cost of Australia's biggest public policy failure is real. According to the VCCC, the Victorian Comprehensive Cancer Centre, there's been a 30 per cent reduction in cancer reporting. A UNSW study found that wholesale lockdowns cost twice as many lives as they save, and, after the first month, it compounds. Tragically, there has been a 33 per cent increase in children presenting at hospitals with self-harm injuries compared to last year. Last week Lifeline had 1,000 calls in a day for the first time in its history. The Goldstein office has been inundated with stories. Self-funded retirees are struggling. Teenagers are missing rites of passage. Elizabeth McKinnon reached out, concerned about her sister, who has pre-existing depression and, without in-person support or companionship, is getting worse. As Elizabeth said, 'Where is the sense of hope for someone like my sister?'

The cost of Victoria's second lockdown is estimated to be between $300 million and $400 million every day. These aren't just numbers; they're real people's lives, jobs and opportunities. Andrew from Hampton has run a successful sole-trader IT business for 20 years. He has described how his hours have slowed from five days to three days and now vanished entirely along with his capacity to pay his mortgage. Small businesses are held together by a string. JobKeeper is a lifeline, but other bills and debts keep mounting. Many people have found themselves underemployed or unemployed for the first time in their lives. JobSeeker helps, but nothing replaces the dignity, the purpose and the independence of work.

Victoria's situation exposes the fallacy of handing control over to technocrats that can only see problems through a singular lens. We should listen to experts, but it's accountable politicians who must weigh competing considerations and take responsibility. There is no risk-free solution to the suppression of COVID-19. We cannot let fear dictate us living our lives.

Understandably, highlighting the cost of the Victorian government's failures invites the obvious question: what would we have done differently? In normal times, we manage risk; we don't avoid it. We work to build up individual community and system resilience to confront risks. This is not a normal time, and there were gaps to our capacity to do so. It's why the first lockdown did have some logic. Individuals didn't know how to protect themselves. Community organisations were underprepared, and the health system lacked critical equipment. We used that time to help individual, community and system capacity.

Now, the logical thing is to implement sustainable measures, such as face masks, social distancing, venue registrations, capacity limits and working from home, if you can. What we shouldn't be doing is immorally trading away younger Australians' opportunity tomorrow for the false security of today. Victorians need hope. As the Treasurer said, 'Victoria needs a road out.' Canberra has got your back, Victoria. There are brighter days ahead—they are coming—but we have to accept and understand the responsibility that we all have to be part of the solution, not seek the false security of lockdowns in perpetuity.

House adjourned at 20 : 00

The DEPUTY SPEAKER (Mr Vasta) took the chair at 10:30.