THE Victorian Government has been urged to provide priority vaccinations for residents living along the South Australian border from the state’s south-west up to Mildura.
Member for Lowan Emma Kealy, whose border electorate stretches from Hamilton to Rainbow and neighbours the Mildura municipality, told State Parliament this week that border residents needed support to get vaccinated.
Ms Kealy said not enough vaccines had been delivered to the SA-Victoria border regions.
“This government needs to make sure we have priority vaccinations and pop-up vaccination hubs right along the South Australian border, not just in my electorate but all the way up to Mildura, which has one of the lowest vaccination rates in the state,” Ms Kealy said.
“Again, that is in part because there simply has not been enough vaccine delivered to that community.
“They need to have that support – they want to get vaccinated.
“If you live near those communities near the border, a lot of those people simply cannot drive those long distances to get a quicker vaccine.
“So please, I urge the government to make sure these people are vaccinated.”
Ms Kealy said that even with the South Australian Government announcing it would introduce a mandatory requirement to be fully vaccinated before people could cross the border, there was still not a targeted vaccination program announced for border communities.
She said there had not been cross-contamination of people living in the border regions and frequently travelling to areas where there have been many, many cases, which have generally been isolated in Melbourne.
“But we have still had to deal with this shadow pandemic of restrictions, and it has impacted on my community far more significantly than COVID itself ever has,” she said.
Ms Kealy said the government’s “easing” of restrictions at low capacity was a “kick in the guts” for regional hospitality businesses.
She said many business owners had told her the easing gave them no choice but to stay closed for the foreseeable future, with some venue operators describing the restriction changes as “mind-boggling” and “meaningless”.
Regional hospitality businesses can open with only 10 patrons inside and 20 seated outside.
“This is not a plan to reopen – it’s a cruel blow to regional hospitality businesses that hoped they would be seeing some light at the end of the tunnel,” Ms Kealy said.
“The chopping and changing of restrictions are devastating to hospitality businesses already struggling to stay afloat.”
