Following a vote of 20 to 18, Victorian Premier Dan Andrews has been granted the unprecedented power to declare pandemics and issue public health orders whenever he feels like it.
Under the new legislation, which is the first pandemic-specific bill passed, Andrews will be able to institute travel bans, vaccine mandates, mask mandates, and a whole host of other pandemic measures at the drop of a hat, ensuring he retains ultimate power over the lives of those he governs.
At first, it didn’t look like the highly contentious bill would pass, but Andrews was finally successful after a series of amendments were made to sway four crossbenchers to vote it in.
The Pandemic Bill has now passed despite our best efforts to stop it. It’s not what we wanted, but I think the resistance to the bill made the final product less terrible. This isn’t over. Now we double our efforts to stop mandates and passports.
— David Limbrick MP 🌸 (@_davidlimbrick) December 2, 2021
MP Rob Barton appears to have led the floor-crossing of the four crossbenchers.
“We couldn’t, and we didn’t support it originally,” Barton says. “But with an enormous amount of work, we’ve turned this sort of dog’s breakfast bill into a framework to keep the people of Victoria safe.”
Barton says that, beyond safety, preventing the reintroduction of state of emergency powers, which are set to expire on December 15, was paramount to his decision.
“If the bill didn’t get up,” he continues, “I believe the government would have found a way of reintroducing the state of emergency powers, and I don’t think anybody would want to see that again.”
Whether the bill becomes law is now up to Governor-General David Hurley, who will deliberate over the bill in the coming days.
