Damian Drum (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

As Victoria grapples with the prospect of an extended fourth lockdown, there is a very stark choice that the Victorian government has to make today—that is, if it is going to extend this lockdown even further than beyond midnight on Thursday, is it going to continue to lock down all of the state and punish regional Victoria, even though it is hundreds of kilometres away from the nearest infection, or is it going to simply confine the lockdown to Melbourne?

Last time we went through this, regional Victoria was included in the lockdown initially, so all of the state was locked down. Then, eventually, they decided to try and confine the lockdown to Melbourne. It was pathetic. It just didn't work. It's interesting that the police union have come out and said, 'If you're going to lock down Melbourne, please don't try to do this pathetic ring of steel,' better known as the 'ring of marshmallow', because they were unable to confine within Melbourne people from the dangerous spots, from the hotspots. They knew that these roadblocks on the way out of Melbourne simply didn't work. The Police Association have come up with a better way of trying to confine the residents of Melbourne to Melbourne, if that is going to be the case. They can do that by having extended breathalyser type set-ups right around the state, putting every policeman on notice to pull over anybody that they feel like, and making sure that the fines for being away from Melbourne without proper reason are quite extensive.

The reason I need to push this is that regional Victoria has been very, very clear with their message that they cannot continue this blanket model of lockdown when they are literally hundreds of kilometres away from the nearest infection. The president of the Shepparton Chamber of Commerce, John Anderson, has talked about how his traders are not going to be able to survive for much longer. Yarrawonga Holiday Park manager, Sean Driscoll, is describing this as devastating. Businesspeople from Mildura and Bendigo, along with the Wodonga chief executive, have all talked about the devastating impacts that a statewide lockdown has on regional Victoria. There is no common sense associated with having people hundreds and hundreds of kilometres away from the nearest case of infection locked down in the same way that Melbourne is.