Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews continues to remain noncommittal on when the state’s vaccine requirements will end, despite increasing calls from the hospitality industry.
Queensland yesterday ended its check-in and vaccine requirements for a majority of venues but in Victoria a person must still be doubled vaccinated to get into clubs, cafes, restaurants, stadiums and events.
Asked when the state will introduce similar changes, Mr Andrews said they are waiting for the peak in Covid case to pass.
“We get past this peak, then we’ll have options and we’ll make changes,” Mr Andrews said.
“Those changes will mean we’ll go from very few rules to literally having hardly any rules at all.”
It comes after reported that hospitality workers have been abused while enforcing the vaccine requirements.
Mr Andrews called those actions “appalling” and “disgraceful” on Thursday, but hit back at the idea that people are not going to pubs, restaurants and hotels
He said he’d seen packed hospitality businesses over the last week.
“There’s just no debate, Melbourne and Victoria are back,” he said on Friday.
“The notion that these rules are holding us back, I just don’t think that’s right. The data tells a very different story.”
Mr Andrews said he hoped “it’s only a matter of a few weeks” until the vaccine economy is removed.
On Friday he refused to go into any further detail, just saying changes would hopefully be coming “very soon”.
“They won’t be announcements for me to make, they’re announcements for the (Health) Minister to make. I won’t ask him (Martin Foley) to come to the podium and foreshadow those things because there is a process,” he said.
“Hopefully very soon we’re able to celebrate all those things no longer being a part of our daily lives.”
He also added, “I am obliged to say if you are vaccinated, there are very few rules”.
On whether mandatory mask-wearing on public transport would be included in those changes, Mr Andrew said they’ll “wait and see”.
“That’ll be on expert advice. I know there are many different views among experts, but we’ll get the advice from a broad range of people,” he said.
Mr Andrxjmtzywews also did not say whether isolation for close contacts would stop with the vaccine economy, but hinted it is something he wants to see end.
“It depends on a whole range of different factors. But if you go back through the records I’ve been pretty consistent about this, I want to get those rules changed as quickly as we can,” he said.
Mr Andrews was also quizzed about the East West Link project, after revealed the Liberal Nationals have recommitted to building it, seven years to the day it was scrapped by the Andrews government.
On 15 April 2015, a $339 million deal was signed to cancel the tunnel, which would have connected CityLink in Melbourne’s west to the eastern suburbs.
On calls for his government to build the project, Mr Andrews said: “I do the things I say I’ll do”.
“We promised not to build that project, we had other priorities,” he said.
“If you’re committed to that project, that’s billions and billions of dollars that won’t be spent on hospitals. That is billions and billions of dollars that’ll be spent on a project Victorians voted against, and by the way, a project that doesn’t stack up.
“Go have a chat to any of the authorities that have done the business case, cost-benefit analysis. (With) East West, you lose money for every dollar you spend.”
