Member for Ovens Valley Tim McCurdy said the Victorian Ombudsman’s “scathing report captures the inhumane actions of the Victorian Government closing the border along the Murray for the first time in over 100 years”.
“This report found the Victorian Government’s blunt process involving border permits and exemptions, cut off families, left people homeless, and caused heartache for thousands,” Mr McCurdy said.
“The investigation showed that between July 9 and September 14, the department received 33,252 exemption applications of which only eight per cent (2736) were granted,” he said.
Mr McCurdy said one submission reads: “we just want an exemption to be with our dying daughter … She is terminal, palliative, and end of life”.
“We are being treated inhumanly [by a person] making a decision taking weeks we don’t have.”
“This is just one of the hundreds of devastating complainants recorded by heartbroken Victorians that in the words of the Ombudsman were ‘downright unjust, even inhumane’,” Mr McCurdy said.
He said the National Party will push for the government to take responsibility and finally publicly acknowledge the countless distress it caused to so many Victorians to ensure this never happens again.
The Victorian Ombudsman report revealed 2649 exemption applications to attend funerals or end of life were received by the Department of Health, however only 877 were granted.
As many as 10,812 exemption applications were submitted for individuals to return home for health, wellbeing, care and compassionate reasons with just 895 granted.
In the report, the Ombudsman stated, “Overnight, thousands of Victorians were locked out of their own state. For the first time in over 100 years, our border on the Murray River was closed.
“This was not wrong: we assessed the border directions and concluded they were lawful.
“It quickly became apparent the problem was in the execution. Many of the complaints received were heartbreaking.
“The whole scheme failed to comprehend the very real need for many people to come and go across the border for a whole range of reasons, even in the face of official warnings.
“Rather than fairly considering individual circumstances and the risks associated with them, the exemptions scheme was a blunt instrument that resulted in unjust outcomes, potentially for thousands of people.
“I recognise that the Department of Health was focused on the safety of the people in Victoria, seeking to reduce the risks to public health by severely limiting cross-border contact. But the result was some of the most questionable decisions I have seen in my over seven years as Ombudsman.”
The Ombudsman continued, “it appeared to us that the department put significant resources into keeping people out rather than helping them find safe ways to get home.
“If there is a next time — we cannot let this happen again.”
On September 9 last year the Yarrawonga Chronicle reported about a former Savernake resident now Mooroopna paramedic Chloe Bruce who struggled for five weeks to obtain a border permit to travel to Wagga Wagga to be by her mother’s side who was in palliative care as a result of a prolonged battle with cancer.
Even as a frontline worker she desperately tried to apply for a compassionate exemption to cross the border to no avail.
Out of “frustration, sheer desperation and despair” Ms Bruce wrote a letter pleading with then NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to allow her to visit her mother.
After numerous attempts as well as escalating the request where the border team doctor contacted her mother’s head oncologist but deemed that there was not enough evidence to progress the application, Ms Bruce finally got an exemption on September 5 (33 days after first trying) and was able to go and visit her mum that weekend.
Unfortunately, just over a month later, her Mum Debbie passed away.
Within the report the Ombudsman welcomed amendments to the Public Health and Wellbeing Act 2008 (Vic) to provide greater transparency of public health advice and human rights assessments underpinning decisions to issue public health orders.
The report also reads: “Further changes, some of which can be reflected in guidance under the Act, are, however, still needed to address the issues identified in this report.
“Recommendations to the Victorian Government:
“Recommendation 1: Publicly acknowledge that the narrow exercise of discretion under the border directions while NSW and the ACT were ‘extreme risk zones’ resulted in unjust outcomes, and consider measures to alleviate this, such as ex gratia payments on application to help cover the financial cost of not being able to travel home.
“Recommendation 2: To provide greater clarity, consider amending Section 12 of the Charter of Human Rights and Responsibilities Act 2006 (Vic) to reflect the equivalent provision in the Human Rights Act 2004 (ACT) as follows. 12 Freedom of movement: Every person has the right to move freely within Victoria and to enter and leave it and has the freedom to choose where to live.”
