Documents the Victorian state government has fought to keep under wraps shows Melbourne’s first COVID curfew during the pandemic was a captains’ call by then premier Daniel Andrews and not necessarily recommended by public health officials. The revelation comes in an email exchange between the state’s health chiefs from that time obtained by the state’s opposition under freedom of information laws.
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00:00During the pandemic, Daniel Andrews often maintained his government was following the health advice.
00:08Guys, right to go.
00:09But in August 2020, it was the Premier's call to declare a state of disaster,
00:14enforcing a six-week curfew from 8pm to 5am for Melbourne's 5 million residents.
00:21It is not an easy decision to make, but it is the decision that is necessary and that is why I have made it.
00:26Four and a half years on, documents obtained by the opposition under Freedom of Information reveal
00:31the curfew wasn't based on health advice.
00:35In an email to Chief Public Health Officer Brett Sutton seeking approval to issue a public health direction
00:40just hours before the measure began, Public Health Commander Dr Finn Remains wrote
00:45The idea of a curfew has not arisen from public health advice in the first instance,
00:50but both Dr Remains and Professor Sutton did support the measure.
00:55Professor Sutton wrote there appears to be merit in limiting opportunities for transmission,
00:59perhaps especially in high-risk cohorts.
01:02In this case, it was not a health-based scientific decision.
01:08It was a whim of one man.
01:12Despite pinning the blame on the former Premier, the opposition wants answers too from the current one,
01:17who, at the time, was one of the seven-member crisis cabinet that approved the curfew.
01:23Why did she not question that? Why did she not step forward and say,
01:28actually, this is too much?
01:30The government wasn't talking today, but in a statement said it did what was needed
01:34to protect Victorians during the pandemic, working closely with public health experts
01:40on a response to COVID-19 that protected lives and livelihoods.
01:45A clearer picture on how the pandemic was handled with documents the government fought in court to keep secret.
01:52So, let's see.
01:53Let's see.
01:54Let's see.
01:55Let's see.
01:56Let's see.