Beverly McArthur, MP, Western Victoria Region, Media Release, 5 August 2021
Welcome to the latest game in town, Lockdown Lotto where random reigns and the numbers don’t add up.
This afternoon’s announcement by the Victorian Government of another state wide lockdown has become a plaything for the Premier, and a serious challenge for Victorian businesses and families.
Member for Western Victoria, Bev McArthur, says it’s a seven-day lockdown without the backing of science or logic.
“The numbers are random – it’s a case of pick a number, any number,” Mrs McArthur said.
“Now in Lockdown 6.0, we face another set of figures, arbitrary, different to the last. Seven days of lockdown is based upon what science?
“We’ve had 14-day lockdowns, 10 days, five days, now seven days. Pick a day, it doesn’t matter. They’re rubbery numbers at best. Victorians know it will change along the way depending on random ‘medical’ advice that the public never gets to see.
“Seven days will turn in 10, or 14.
“The Premier is playing a game with people’s lives. He is being backed by his party and three crossbenchers who have today voted down a Liberal National’s Private Member’s Bill requiring them to release the health advice which triggered today’s decision
“Fiona Patten, Andy Meddick from the Animal Justice Party and the Greens’ Samantha Ratnam are the crossbench culprits who have also handed the Premier the ongoing State of Emergency Powers.
“The Premier, and the gruesome threesome, are playing with business failures, the dwindling education of our children, the deaths of the elderly and sick on their own, and our freedom.
“Lockdown 6.0 is cruel.
“I do not support the lockdown of an entire state. No one outside the Premier’s blessed tram tracks should be involved in this lockdown on the basis of a handful of cases – and few in Melbourne should be subject to it either.
“The Premier cannot demand a ring of steel around Sydney and then far exceed that by applying a ring of steel around the entire state of Victoria.
“This will kill confidence. There is white hot fury amongst small business owners – with restaurants, cafes and the like now throwing out millions of dollars of food.
“Families are now taking a chance every time they book a trip inside the state.
“And they will not continue to play a game of good-luck lotto to cross a border anymore.
“Victorians cannot afford to endlessly gamble their finances, families and livelihoods in what has become a real-life game of thrones, in which ultimate power is sought and abused by those in charge, including the health bureaucracy and the public sector, sitting at home on increasing salaries.
“It is reckless, careless and callous to those outside the protection of the powerful.
“Those in power, need to understand that this is actually not a game. It cannot go on. Zero infections is an impossibility, even in a vaccinated position.
“If power is the ultimate aim, then there is only one winner in this game of Lockdown Lotto, and that’s Premier Daniel Andrews, whose grip on the dictatorial reigns keeps getting tighter.
“It’s a game Victorians can no longer afford to play.”
