Independent Member for Shepparton District Suzanna Sheed has called on the Victorian Government to find a safe pathway home for Victorians who have been locked out due to COVID-19 restrictions.

“We have been speaking to residents from the Shepparton electorate either waiting at the New South Wales border or Queensland and they are growing increasingly anxious that there is no clear path for their return,” Ms Sheed said.

“While my office was able to help some residents with exceptional cases to return, we have many more who left to travel in their caravans when they were entitled to and now find themselves locked out of their own state.

“Some of these residents are elderly and need to feel settled at home during these trying times.

“Many of these travellers are over the age of 60, were first in line to receive their vaccination, and they can self-isolate at home.

“Home isolation, following a direct transit from the New South Wales border seems to be the most simple and straightforward approach.

“We are going to great efforts to bring people home from overseas and provide quarantine facilities for them. Surely, we can bring home our local residents from interstate and find a safe way to do so.

“They could provide a current negative COVID-19 test before leaving New South Wales and perhaps an additional rapid antigen test as they cross the border.

“I am also concerned that if a Victorian who is in Northern New South Wales or Queensland is granted an exemption to return to Victoria, the time frame for their return is 24 hours.

“This is a mammoth task for two drivers, especially when they are elderly, let alone one driver, which is in many instances the case.

“It puts pressure on them to make it to the border in a short time frame which puts them and other motorists at risk on the road.

“I would like to see this time extended to 36 hours, to ensure road safety and the safe return of our residents.”

Media contact

Elaine Cooney 0447 820 466 │elaine.cooney@parliament.vic.gov.au

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Independent Member for Shepparton District Suzanna Sheed has called on the Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews to respond to Shepparton residents’ critical needs amid the lockdown, which has seen almost a third of the city’s population in 14-day isolation.

“Due to the number of workers in isolation, many local food suppliers and the logistics they need to deliver food, are unable to provide the community with its basic needs,” Ms Sheed said.

“Shepparton supermarkets have been identified as exposure sites – one major outlet has been closed, others are telling us that their staff rates have been reduced by 80 per cent today. “This is creating limited or long delays in processing orders.

“We need logistical support to get feet on the ground to undertake many of the basic tasks that assist to put food on the table for our Shepparton community who are currently in lockdown.

“In addition to ensuring that our most vulnerable people are supported through regular government agencies, people need to know that they can get deliveries of food and medications.

“I am greatly concerned that our elderly residents may not be receiving the level of care they need due to a reduced workforce in aged care centres.”

Ms Sheed provided the Victorian Government with Shepparton’s critical needs list, which includes:

1. More staff at Goulburn Valley Health to ensure critical services are provided.

2. We need more testing stations. As more schools and exposure sites are identified the number of tests required continues to grow and by next week there will be people ready for their day 13 testing.

3. Our supermarkets are facing a crisis of staff shortages and have been exposure sites. We need the army to assist them with restoring online ordering, packing food and groceries and delivering goods throughout the community.

4. The COVID hotline needs more resourcing. People are anxious and need urgent access to information and resources. The wait times are long and contributing to general anxiety.

5. A push for community vaccinations in the form of advertising, broader communication, and clear information that Pfizer is now available to over 16-year-olds along with longer opening hours.

 

Media contact

Elaine Cooney 0447 820 466 │elaine.cooney@parliament.vic.gov.au

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Independent Member for Shepparton District Suzanna Sheed welcomed the response in Parliament this week to her call for action on floodplain harvesting in the northern Murray-Darling Basin.

Acting Victorian Water Minister Richard Wynne told Ms Sheed that the Victorian Government would make a submission to the New South Wales upper house Inquiry into Floodplain Harvesting.

“I have been very concerned for some time that the Victorian Government is taking a backseat role in representing Victoria’s interest on this critical issue,” Ms Sheed said.

“I have been watching the developments in northern New South Wales closely and the attempts to legitimise floodplain harvesting by government regulation. The upper house of the New South Wales Parliament has disallowed these regulations and has now called for an inquiry into the practice.

“My recent trip up the Darling River and across the Northern Basin showed the huge number of dams that have been built since the state signed up to the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement in 1995.

“It is simply not good enough that New South Wales has ignored the terms of this agreement by continuing development when Victoria has abided by its terms.”

Ms Sheed, who is making her own independent submission to the inquiry, called on the Victorian Government to make a submission detailing Victoria’s critical interests, before submissions close next Friday, 13 August 2021.

Mr Wynne told Ms Sheed the State Government would make a submission to the New South Wales inquiry.

He said the State Government opposed floodplain harvesting and would continue its advocacy to get a decent and a sustainable outcome when it comes to the Murray-Darling Basin, and particularly related to traditional owner groups.

Ms Sheed told Mr Wynne that the Murray-Darling Basin Agreement means that Victoria and southern New South Wales must provide South Australia with a share of water but when the Darling River does not flow, it has to supply a greater amount.

“On top of this the environmental damage to the Darling River has been devastating and flows have been reducing progressively over the last 20 years,” Ms Sheed said.

“We saw and heard from farmers and community representatives all along the Darling River on our recent trip and it is extremely concerning these issues are not being properly addressed.

“It’s unfair that Victoria and southern New South Wales have to sacrifice water from the Murray River, when the water is being depleted from the Darling River by irrigators in the Northern Basin.

“A failure to supply from the Darling River in any year directly affects the water allocations on which the Murray River irrigators depend.”

Media contact

Elaine Cooney 0447 820 466 │elaine.cooney@parliament.vic.gov.au

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Independent Member for Shepparton District Suzanna Sheed has called on the Minister for Health Martin Foley to assist Goulburn Valley Health with the Covid-19 vaccine rollout.

Goulburn Valley Health is providing vaccinations to the community at the McIntosh Centre from 9am to 4pm Monday to Friday.

In a letter to Mr Foley, Ms Sheed asked the State Government to provide Goulburn Valley Health with the necessary resources to help the service offer a seven-day-a week vaccination service, just like Bendigo, Geelong and many metropolitan locations.

Ms Sheed described the current opening hours for the availability of vaccinations through the health service as “entirely insufficient”.

“Goulburn Valley Health urgently needs more supply and resources for our eligible community members to receive their vaccinations,” she said.

“Vaccinations should be offered throughout weekends, as they were briefly when the Pfizer vaccination became available to 40-49-year-olds.

“Some Shepparton workers simply cannot take almost two hours out of their working day to get vaccinated.

“We need to make the vaccinations easily accessible to everyone in our community if we are to offer them the protection they deserve against Covid-19.

“While some GPs in our area provide Covid-19 vaccination services, I am hearing reports that their capacity to do so is limited as they deal with their usual patient load.

“Shepparton workers need a bigger window of time in the week to get their vaccinations.

“If the government wants to drive up vaccination rates, it needs to make vaccinations more accessible.”

Media contact:

Elaine Cooney 0447 820 466 │elaine.cooney@parliament.vic.gov.au

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Independent Member for Shepparton District Suzanna Sheed raised concerns about three safety issues on Dookie’s roads with Roads and Road Safety Minister Ben Carroll, who said he would work with Greater Shepparton City Council on two dangerous intersections.

 

Following discussions with Dookie police earlier this year, Ms Sheed wrote to the minister expressing serious concerns about two intersections in Dookie.

 

“Dookie police reported that they attended an accident between a utility and a prime mover with a trailer on the intersection of Kellows and Cosgrave-Caniambo Roads in November last year,” Ms Sheed said.

 

“Police fear that a serious injury – or even a fatality – could occur at the dangerous intersection if the “Give Way” signs were not replaced with “Stop” signs.”

 

In a letter responding to Ms Sheed’s concerns, Minister Carroll said the Department of Transport would raise the safety issues about the Kellows and Cosgrove-Caniambo Roads with Greater Shepparton City Council, as it fell within the council’s responsibility to understand if stop signs may be more suitable.

 

Ms Sheed’s staff spoke to a representative from building material company Boral about the five-way intersection of New Dookie, Old Dookie, Berry, Kellows, and Quarry Roads.

 

“You only need to look at a map to see why this intersection is potentially extremely dangerous,” Ms Sheed said.

 

Minister Carroll’s letter stated that he requested the Department of Transport to arrange a meeting with Greater Shepparton City Council to discuss road safety issues at the complex intersection of New Dookie, Old Dookie, Berry, Kellows, and Quarry Roads, to identify if any safety improvements were required.

 

In his response to Ms Sheed, Minister Carroll said the Department of Transport considered a request for new speed signage and line marking on the approaches to the Dookie township nearing the grain silos, but higher priorities took precedence in recent grant rounds.

 

“The minister assured me the Department of Transport would explore interim safety improvements,” Ms Sheed said.

 

Media contact

Elaine Cooney 0447 820 466 │elaine.cooney@parliament.vic.gov.au

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