Nationals MPs call on Andrews Government to reconsider regional Victorian lockdown rules

‘One size doesn’t fit all’: country MPs urge lockdown rethink
By Tom Minear and Tamsin Rose
Herald Sun (page 8)
REGIONAL Victorian MPs are urging the state government to reconsider blanket stay-at-home restrictions on large parts of the state that have no coronavirus cases.
From Thursday, country Victorians will only be allowed to leave home to shop for essentials, provide care, exercise, and for work or study that cannot be done remotely.
The new rules will force the closure of businesses including beauty and personal services and entertainment venues.
Local sport will also shut down and cafes and restaurants can only serve takeaway food.
Nationals MPs say the “one-size-fits-all” approach is causing widespread frustration in areas that were beginning to recover from drought and the summer bushfire crisis.
Cabinet minister Darren Chester, who represents
Gippsland, said rural Victorians were “feeling a bit bruised”.
He criticised forcing rural VCE students to return to remote learning, saying it was “offensive” to suggest they would otherwise receive an unfair advantage as they had long been held back by a lack of opportunity and resources.
“The only reason why any young person at school should not be at school should be on the basis of health advice,” Mr Chester said.
Nationals Senate leader Bridget McKenzie said the party had been calling for a harder lockdown of Melbourne to protect rural areas.
“There is a sense of frustration now, given the lack of community transmission and in many cases zero COVID-19 cases for months,” she said.
Senator McKenzie said the stay-at-home rules would “wreak havoc long-term” and lacked a “clinical rationale”, pointing to the mandatory masks policy, which was only enforced in regional Victoria from Monday.
“We haven’t been able to get a chance to see if that would work,” she said.
Damian Drum, the MP for Nicholls in the state’s northeast, said there was rising “frustration and anger” among regional residents. “I’ve been yelling and screaming for the past month that we need a separate approach to regional Victoria,” he said.
“It’s fallen on deaf ears . We’re talking about 1.5 million Victorians who seem to have been forgotten in all of this.” He called for restrictions to be eased in the north of the state, arguing the current measures were separating “clean communities” from each other unnecessarily.
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack backed his MPs, saying the state government needed to take a more “practical approach”.