The current state of emergency is due to expire on Sunday September 13.
Yesterday Premier Dan Andrews has announced that he intends to extend Victoria’s ‘state of emergency’ for an extra 12 months past the September 13 deadline. The current laws limit a state of emergency to a maximum consecutive period of six months, which will be reached in Victoria on Sunday September 13.
Facing a tough fight in state Parliament to do so, the premier’s decision arose following Victoria’s latest figures, recording 116 new cases of coronavirus and 15 more aged-care deaths.
“That is the legal instrument that allows, for instance, rules about face masks, rules about COVIDSafe work plans in large workplaces and small. That’s the legal instrument that, for instance, sits behind density limits in pubs and restaurants and cafes or things like a positive person, a person who’s got this virus, being required to isolate at home,” explained Andrews during a press conference yesterday.
“We simply can’t have those important rules and the legal framework that sits behind them, we can’t have that end on the 13th of September because this virus won’t have ended by the 13th of next month,” he said.
The amendments to Victoria’s Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 are expected to be introduced on September 1 to allow the state government to continue to enforce public health protections for another 12 months.
Following the announcement, panic arose across the state in regards to what extending the state of emergency actually means, with many worried we’d be trapped in doors for the next year, encouraging Andrews to take to Facebook late last night to clarify.
“This does not change how long our current lockdown will last, or increase the restrictions we face.
“At the moment, the rules we rely on to keep Victoria safe – things like face coverings, requiring workplaces to have a COVIDSafe plan, and mandatory isolation for people who have tested positive to coronavirus – are only possible when a State of Emergency has been declared,” the post reads.
“The State of Emergency essentially gives government the ability to implement the protections needed to keep Victorians safe.
Without it, these changes could take weeks or months to pass through Parliament – but in a health crisis like this, where the situation changes daily, that just isn’t workable.”
Victoria has been in a State of Emergency since March, and since then the and State of Emergency has already been renewed six times. However, under the current legislation, it can’t be renewed beyond next month without Parliament intervention, which the Andrews’ government intends to do to properly respond to this current pandemic.
“You don’t need to be the Chief Health Officer to realise that this virus isn’t going to disappear next month, and that until we find a vaccine – we’ll be dealing with it for a while to come, in some form or another.
“That’s why we’re introducing changes to allow the State of Emergency to be extended up until mid-September 2021.
“This doesn’t mean we will be in lockdown for another 12 months – or that we’re forced to remain in a State of Emergency for that long either.
“It just means it is there if the health experts tell us it’s needed.
“This is about ensuring that we can legally make the changes our health experts need to keep us safe.”
In another post to Facebook, state member for Geelong Christine Couzens also added that the extension doesn’t have any impact on Parliament’s ability to hold the Government to account.
“Ministers, the Chief Health Officer and other senior officials can still be scrutinised during hearings,” she said.
“Until we have a vaccine, we can’t limit ourselves from being able to take action against COVID-19.
That’s exactly what this change is about – and that’s exactly why I support it.”
The Victorian government will also be publishing data related to active case numbers, deaths, outbreaks, hospitalizations and more daily to provide local communities with more information.
The site will list ‘high risk locations’ in which there has been a known exposure period so that anyone who has been present at those locations within the relevant timeframes can watch for symptoms and get tested, if necessary.
For more information, visit the Department of Health and Human Services website.
