Fiona Patten understands why people are ‘fired up’ over state of emergency legislation

Reason Party leader Fiona Patten says she understands why people are “fired up” over the state government’s bid to re-write the State of Emergency legislation, but says it’s the only way forward for Victoria during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ms Patten will vote in favour of the legislation, which will give the government the power to extend a State of Emergency for another six months.

“They are significant powers but in my opinion, to open up, we are going to need some rules,” Ms Patten said.

As for what those rules will be, the Reason Party leader admits she’s still in the dark.

“This has fired people up and I understand that,” she explained.

“I think people are thinking ‘State of Emergency’ means we will remain in lockdown and that is not what it means.

“It means there will be rules so we can open and we can’t do it without them.”