Out of Lockdown
The lifting of Lockdown 8.0 on Ballarat is enormously welcome.
It enables some version of normality to resume for Ballarat and its businesses, families and elderly who are exhausted by the ongoing Covid dramas.
But Member for Western Victoria, Bev McArthur said the relief must not be temporary.
“Ballarat residents who contact me are emotionally drained. They’re on empty,” Mrs McArthur said.
“They talk to me about living in a constant state of doubt, of minimal opportunity, of confined spaces, of the loneliness of not seeing family and friends and the fragmentation of mental health and happiness. They can’t plan. They can’t progress. Life is stagnant.
“I don’t think most people will handle another lockdown. The anger is palpable among those who can’t work and those whose lives are crushed.
“The Premier and his bureaucrats don’t understand the impacts their directives and restrictions are having on the lives and livelihoods of so many.
“But the penny is broadly dropping that this can’t go on.
“Many are now openly questioning why draconian diktats have been made without any science or medical advice. People won’t keep blindly accepting the Premier’s ‘because I say so’ mantra.
“Much of this is political. The curfews are not based on medical advice, nor are playground closures, or drinking coffee through masks.
“People are starting to understand what it means to have basic freedoms removed, and they want them back,” she said.
Mrs McArthur believes Ballarat residents should be demanding their local MPs actually fight for them next time the Premier clicks his fingers and shuts things down.
“The silence from Julianna Addison, Michaela Settle and Jaala Pulford has been deafening.
“Have they ever publicly questioned the Ballarat lockdowns, or the statewide lockdowns when there were no virus cases in Ballarat at the time?
“I’m sure they’ll argue about the billions the Government is spending on mental health or business support grants.
“But all of that is our money – and little of it would need to be spent if schools were open, businesses open, the elderly and sick able to be seen, home visits enabled, sport allowed to be played, nurseries fully open and people able to have medical appointments as required.
“The Labor Mayor, Cr Daniel Moloney, praised the Government for its nuanced 8.0 lockdown.
“Locking things down is not nuance,” Mrs McArthur said.
“On behalf of his ratepayers, he should be rejecting lock downs and arguing for targeted, proportionate responses – the complete opposite to closing down a whole city for a handful of traceable cases.
“Ballarat is now one of the most locked down cities in the world.
“Lockdown 9 cannot happen.”
23 September 2021
