MILDURA Council has backed a push for COVID-19 lockdowns to be restricted by local government area only despite concerns about possible ramifications.
The council was asked to support the plan by Swan Hill Rural City Council which drafted a list of measures to press the Victorian Government to treat regional and rural Victoria differently when managing any pandemic.
The proposal said that while rural communities had been compliant and understanding, there had been an ever-increasing gap between the justification for increased restrictions and the real on-ground experience.
The Swan Hill council said lockdowns should be imposed on individual LGA regions, or neighbouring municipalities as well if necessary, to stop the spread of the virus as opposed to the disproportionate measures to the risks experienced in rural areas.
The COVID-19 Response Advocacy document said border bubbles need to be harmonised and rules around restriction of movement should be “well and truly settled by now” and not subject to constant review and change.
Mildura councillor Glenn Milne said supporting the Swan Hill initiative was “a step in the right direction and a good step by the council to work with other councils to see what we can achieve”.
“It’s just about how we react to COVID and writing to the government to see if we can get a better set of rules or guidelines,” Cr Milne said.
“Our communities are getting frustrated, particularly river communities where … we really operate as one community,” he said.
Cr Milne said shutting down local government areas could be far easier than shutting down three quarters of Victoria or the whole state.
“It would give our communities a lot more satisfaction and comfort to know that there is a fairly well thought out set of rules that they know when, where and how, rather than the hit and miss response that we are getting at the moment,” he said.
Cr Cyndi Power supported the push, saying there was a strong human element behind the proposal.
“Whether you are a business owner just trying to keep it together and keep things afloat or you are a parent at home with young children, the mental effects of what has been going on … are heightened by frustration that people feel over restrictions that are not in proportion with our rural sparsely populated area compared to the cities,” she said.
But Cr Jodi Reynolds said that while there was no doubt that clear and consistent rules were needed, the ramifications of limiting lockdowns to local government areas were unclear.
“There are aspects of this letter that I agree with, but I’m not sure that some of the ramifications of trying to enforce some of the things that this letter recommends are doable,” she said.
“If we were to close down our local government borders, who’s responsibility is it to manage that and do we have the funds and the resources as a local council to manage a huge border with another local council to make sure that people are doing the right thing?”
Cr Milne, however, said there as nothing to suggest that local governments would police the regional borders.
“It’s up to the government to declare the border areas and the government to do what they are doing now to enforce those,” he said.
“It is really hard to understand if your community is shut down (when) we’ve got no cases and people really want to get on with their lives.
“Our community has been very, very good with isolation — we haven’t seen the spread — they have been very good with testing … they are doing a really good job and I think we should be proud of our community.
“But they really are hurting and they want some very straight-forward, clear rules.”
A motion to adopt and endorse COVID-19 response advocacy developed by the Swan Hill Council was passed eight votes to one.
