Update (Nov 16): The Greens have secured additional amendments to further improve the Bill so there is better protection for human rights and Victorians' health and safety during the pandemic.
The reforms that the Greens, along with the Reason Party and the Animal Justice Party, secured through constructive negotiations with the government include:
- Halving the maximum fines for breaching public health orders
- A stronger threshold for declaring a pandemic
- Applying the Charter of Human Rights to all orders and actions
- The right to protest will be protected and enshrined in regulations
- Making health advice and orders available to the public earlier
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The Greens have been negotiating with the Victorian Government to create better laws for managing a pandemic into the future.
These laws are a big improvement on the current system and much fairer for the whole Victorian community.
These new laws still allow our Chief Health Officer and the government to make decisions to keep us safe during a pandemic, but with greater transparency and accountability to the community.
As part of our constructive negotiations the Greens have secured:
- Any new pandemic restrictions will have an independent oversight committee, made up of both health experts and human rights experts
- Greater transparency: the public gets to see health advice and it’s also tabled in Parliament
- Fairer COVID fines system for those experiencing disadvantage
- Protecting people's QR code and contact tracing data so police can’t get access to it, except where someone’s life is in imminent danger and they also get approval from the Supreme Court
These new laws mean there will be no more blunt ‘state of emergency’ laws for COVID-19. They also show the importance of having the Greens in Parliament, negotiating with the government to get better outcomes for our community.
We consulted with legal and human rights groups throughout this process and ensured many of their concerns were addressed in the Bill.
The Greens will continue to support a public health-led response to this pandemic, but we’ll also always support the community and push to make our laws fairer.
why new pandemic laws
We are still in a pandemic and we still need laws to control the spread of infection. There are around 400 people in hospital with COVID, 300 Victorians have died of COVID in the past month and while the number of infections and hospitalisations are dropping they will fluctuate for some time.
Controlling the spread of infections by contact tracing and quarantining cases is still important to avoid overwhelming our hospital system.
The incredible job Victorians have done getting vaccinated means many restrictions are being lifted, however COVID still poses a public health risk to our community. Particularly at risk now are immunocompromised and disabled people and the unvaccinated.
Without this Bill the government will either need to extend the State of Emergency powers, which have none of the additional checks and balances of the new legislation, or be left with no ability to keep us safe.
SUPPORT FOR THE BILL
In reality the Bill is a significant improvement on the existing laws in Victoria, and provides more robust checks and balances than the current Victorian public health laws or any of the laws in other States around the country for dealing with the COVID pandemic.
Human rights and legal groups like the Human Rights Law Centre, the Law Institute of Victoria, the Centre for Public Integrity and Liberty Victoria have largely welcomed the important new accountability measures the Greens have negotiated.
Human rights lawyer Hugh de Kretser for example has said, “The last 20 months has shown the need for stronger safeguards around emergency powers. This bill provides that. It improves transparency, oversight, scrutiny and accountability. It has new privacy safeguards and a fairer way of dealing with fines for people on low incomes.” Read his full piece here.
There has also been a lot of misinformation circulated about this legislation. There has been a concerted campaign by right wing groups, including Reignite Democracy and Clive Palmer, to use this moment to build their support for their divisive politics. Samantha Ratnam along with other cross-benchers have received numerous threats. Other critiques, for example from some barristers, have overblown the provisions in the Bill.
There are, however, genuine ways the Bill can be improved and we are continuing to talk to the government about further improvements to the legislation, including further enhancing human rights protections and oversight.
Important measures the Greens secured
Independent Advisory Committee
The Greens put on the table early the need for independent oversight of the pandemic orders. We are very pleased to see the government take up our proposal. As we know confronting the pandemic has required public health directions that are far reaching. The Independent Advisory Committee will help ensure confidence that the decisions being made are proportionate and necessary.
The Independent Advisory Committee will include experts on public health, epidemiology, human rights and people able to advise on the impacts of the public health orders on the community. The Committee will have the right to review any pandemic orders it wants to and its advice will be made public.
The Committee will operate as a vital means for the community being able to hold the government to account for the decisions it is making that affect us all.
Transparency of decision making
It is really important that the community knows why a government is making the decisions it is making. And the more significant the decision, the more important transparency is. So the Greens are very pleased to have secured the agreement of the government that all reasons for decisions, the public health advice and the human rights advice will all be made public and tabled in parliament.
A fairer fines system
Unfortunately, during the course of the pandemic we have seen a disproportionate number of people from disadvantaged backgrounds fined under COVID directions. Many of them are just unable to pay the significant fines, leaving them with unfair debt. The fines system under the current laws does not support good public health outcomes.
A fairer fines system was a crucial element that the Greens sought to secure as part of our negotiations. We were successful in two very important reforms to make the fines system fairer:
- Firstly, the introduction for the first time of a significantly lower rate of fines for people with health care cards or on income support. Concessional fines like these are much fairer as fines are more proportionate to a person’s ability to pay.
- Secondly, an expansion of the special circumstances test that will mean more people facing disadvantage can have their fines removed. This reform will apply to all fines, not just COVID fines.
Protecting QR Code data and other contract tracing information
The Greens have been pushing the government for months to protect QR code and other contract tracing data. In the new pandemic legislation, such information can only be accessed for public health purposes. The police cannot have access to such data for any criminal investigations. Police can only access the data on application to the Supreme Court and only for the purposes of stopping a threat to life.
This reform is about giving everyone in the community confidence to keep using the check in system for our collective safety.
Enhanced democratic accountability
It’s important that public health experts are at the heart of our pandemic decision making. The Minister for Health will make the orders based on advice from the Chief Health Officer, and these will also be reviewed by an independent panel of public health experts, epidemiologists and human rights experts. The Minister would also be ultimately accountable to Parliament and the public, which is important. This brings us in line with what happens in New Zealand.
We have been fortunate in Victoria to have had an excellent Chief Health Officer in Brett Sutton to guide us through the pandemic. The Chief Health Officer (CHO) will continue to play a pivotal role in any pandemic response, with the Health Minister relying on his advice. Furthermore the CHO’s advice will be made public to keep the Minister accountable.
The person exercising such extraordinary powers in a democracy should be accountable to the people. In the new laws it will be the Health Minister who signs the orders and there can be no doubt that the ultimate responsibility lies with the democratically-elected government.
The Minister is accountable to the community through the parliament and ultimately at an election. The Minister fronts Question Time and is routinely subject to questioning by parliamentary committees.