Wednesday, 21 September 2022

Pandemic Declaration Accountability and Oversight Committee

Review of the Pandemic (Visitors to Hospitals and Care Facilities) Orders

Ms SHEED (Shepparton) (10:43):(By leave) I am pleased to speak on the report of the Pandemic Declaration Accountability and Oversight Committee that was tabled in this house in July. The review is entitled Review of the Pandemic (Visitors to Hospitals and Care Facilities) Orders. There were two reports during the course of the six months that the committee was in place that were both tabled in the Parliament. The committee was established under the pandemic management framework set up by the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008. The new framework commenced as a result of the passage of what was highly contested legislation during the course of last year and passed both houses finally in early December 2021. The new pandemic declaration was made on 15 December 2021, and it was from then that the committee actually took form. The committee only exists when there is a pandemic declaration in force in the state of Victoria. Members will remember that prior to that we were operating under the state of emergency powers that exist under the Public Health and Wellbeing Act.

I was elected chair of the committee when it was formed just before Christmas 2021. Mr Jeff Bourman of the other place was elected deputy chair, and other members comprised the members for Sunbury, Ivanhoe, Lowan, Eltham and Rowville, and Ms Georgie Crozier, Mr Enver Erdogan and the Honourable Harriet Shing, all of the other place. I thank them for their contributions throughout the public hearings and the deliberations in the preparation of the reports. The opposition parties filed a minority report.

I also thank the secretariat. This was a new committee that was established at very short notice under very controversial legislation, and there was a pretty steep learning curve for everyone. The secretariat and particularly Mr Matt Newington provided great support to the committee during the course of its operations. Of course the committee still exists, and its role is set out under section 165AS of the Public Health and Wellbeing Act. It was quite legalistic and particular in the manner it had to operate in terms of looking at the orders that the minister would make following the making of a pandemic declaration.

Within a very short time of the committee forming there was a process by which the minister started winding back the orders we had all lived with for two years during a time when there were some very significant and restrictive orders in place in Victoria. The new legislation required the committee to look particularly at the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities and whether the orders fitted within those. Of course the committee took particular legal advice and it heard from many experts and at times members of the public in coming to finalise the report.

It is important to consider the context around the preparation and tabling of the report. The case at that time was that we were in a worldwide pandemic and governments all around the world and Australia had introduced a suite of public health measures aimed at combating the virus and protecting public health. Various restrictions were placed on people in every jurisdiction to deal with that, particularly as the vaccination process was being rolled out.

The visitors to hospitals and care facilities issue came up as the very first one that the committee decided to look at. It did make a number of findings about the very restrictive nature of it and the impact on the mental health of people who were isolated in hospitals and care facilities during the pandemic, and of course there are still significant restrictions imposed by hospitals and care facilities. It is up to them as to how they do it, but it is based on their local needs. The committee generally found that the orders were in order in that they did not breach the charter and that they found the balance that was necessary.

More Australians have died in the past two years of the pandemic, and it has been a real struggle for communities to deal with the situation that they have found themselves in. I think it is important to say in closing that a community is determined by the value that it places on those most vulnerable in its community, and that is how we will be judged. I consider that we are no longer doing well on that score. An examination of how we can do better, particularly in caring for those in residential aged care and the more vulnerable, is essential if we are to maintain our integrity as a community that cares for all its members.