Bridget McKenzie (Victoria, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

Thank you, Madam Acting Deputy President. So, coming, as I do, from Danistan: all of those Labor premiers and chief ministers agreed in March that they would take responsibility for quarantine and we would take responsibility for other aspects of dealing, as a nation, with a global pandemic. Premier McGowan has been tough on the borders, but you know what? He doesn't hold a candle to Daniel Andrews's failures. Premier Palaszczuk—at least you can contact trace in Queensland. In Victoria, they cannot contact-trace a zebra crossing Collins Street, after 18 months. So, if you want to talk about where the failures in our system are in this country, I lay them firmly at the feet of the ministers who've failed—from health ministers right up to the premier—in my home state of Victoria, who, 18 months after the fact, have only one trick in their back pocket on how to deal with outbreaks in my home state, and that is to lock everybody down—everyone, put your masks back on; you can't leave home; you can't get married; you can't bury your loved ones; you can't get elective surgery done; you can't open your business. Of the latest lockdown, the first seven days cost regional Victoria $150 million. It just sounds like a number to people who don't care about small businesses, but these are people who've put their mortgages on the line to run these businesses and have absolutely no certainty. And you know how confident people are in Danistan about our state government's ability to manage the COVID-19—