Liberal MP Tim Smith told Sky News the Andrews government’s nine-month extension of its State of Emergency is a “grubby power grab”.
The State of Emergency was first introduced in March last year and will now be extended until December after Labor secured the support of the Greens, the Reason Party and the Animal Justice Party.
“This is a grubby deal … that’s going to see Victoria locked down until Christmas potentially on the whim of the premier,” Mr Smith said.
“Why did he need these powers given that potentially the entire country will be vaccinated by October?
“This virus should be under control this year so why on earth wouldn’t the premier come back to the parliament for extensions to the State of Emergency on a month by month basis as would be perfectly sensible and not the grubby power grab we saw last night”.
Mr Smith labelled the state of emergency a “massive shock” to confidence in Victoria and pointed out New South Wales doesn’t require a state of emergency to manage the virus.
“This is a massive extension of the role of the state within our society,” he said.
“It’s not acceptable and it should never have happened."
