By Chip Le Grand and Sumeyya Ilanbey
Political opposition is building against Victoria’s protracted state of emergency after Premier Daniel Andrews said extraordinary powers in force since the start of the pandemic would be needed until a COVID-19 vaccine was found.
The Victorian opposition has rejected extending the emergency provisions indefinitely, while crossbench MPs said the issue was fuelling community anxieties and concerns about the impacts of lockdown.
“We can’t keep living like this,’’ Reason Party MP Fiona Patten told The Age.
“The provisions for these extraordinary powers under a state of emergency were written for short-term, immediate issues. In no way were they designed to last two to four years.’’
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Ms Patten said she recognised the need for the government to be able to act quickly in a pandemic but this did not require a “blanket state of emergency”.
“We can’t live in that constant, raised state,” she said.
“It is just not mentally feasible. We need to start looking at how we recover, not seeing the only solution as closing things down.”
Read the full article on the Age’s website.
