Thursday, 15 August 2024

Northern Victoria Region

Rikkie-Lee TYRRELL (Northern Victoria) (12:52): (1038) My question today is for the Minister for Health. Four years ago, the world changed in a way that had not been seen for over 100 years. The COVID-19 pandemic caused chaos, panic and disorder in ways that we, as a society, had not seen before. During this time, vaccine mandates were introduced to ‘keep everyone safe and stop transmission’. Now the world has returned to normal, yet to this day, vaccine mandates remain for our hardworking doctors, nurses, midwives, police, paramedics and firefighters, including many in my electorate of Northern Victoria Region. Victoria is one of the only states that still has these mandates in place. Amid a severe healthcare worker shortage, nurses are leaving Victoria for the same work interstate, and police, fire and ambulance officers remain furloughed at a time when we need them more than ever. My constituents ask: will the minister follow the rest of the country, drop the mandates and allow these people back to work?