Sheed speaks out against rushed pandemic legislation

Independent Member for Shepparton District Suzanna Sheed will today vote against the passage of the Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment (Pandemic Management) Bill 2021 in parliament.

Ms Sheed said the bill was only made publicly available yesterday and a last-minute briefing by the government was given late Monday evening, with a view to the bill being introduced the following morning.

“I would have liked the opportunity to take this back to my electorate,” Ms Sheed said.

“Everything we do in this chamber is premised on the notion that we know what we are doing. When we come to vote on this bill, we should ask ourselves: do we know what we are voting on?”

Ms Sheed agreed that there should be fit-for-purpose pandemic legislation, but she needed the time to consult with the community and experts on the details of the bill.

“There may be aspects of this bill that we could improve on, such as parliamentary oversight and transparency,” Ms Sheed said.

Ms Sheed compared the debate of this legislation to the Assisted Dying Bill, which was released to the public, the opposition, and crossbenchers early and there was the opportunity for wider discussion.

“We spent day and night in this place debating a piece of legislation, which really goes to the importance of life and death issues…here we have a piece of legislation that also affects people’s health. It can be a matter of life and death,” she said.

“We need more time to consider this legislation.”

ENDS

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