MEMBER for Northern Victoria Tim Quilty fell asleep during a marathon debate in Parliament on amendments to the controversial Pandemic Management Bill on Wednesday.
The marathon debate kicked off just after 3pm Tuesday, and finished 21 hours later as MPs worked through more than 80 proposed amendments before a final vote was held.
The legislation, which will give the Premier and Health Minister the power to declare a pandemic and impose restrictions, is set to replace the current state of emergency before it expires in two weeks.
Tempers flared at various times through the sitting, as sleep-deprived MPs hit out at each other from across the chamber.
“(I had a) couple of kicks to the ankle to wake me up,” Liberal Democrats MP Tim Quilty said, adding that there was no need for it to have dragged on for so long.
“Can we have some decorum, I can no longer say very late, I have to say very early,” deputy president Wendy Lovell said shortly before 6am.
The Bill they were dealing with was described as a “very different beast” to the one first proposed.
The amendments have ensured Victorians who breach pandemic orders won’t be thrown in jail and the Ombudsman would be given greater oversight, under revamped legislation experts said “isn’t perfect” but an improvement.
Transport Matters MP Rod Barton backed the pandemic-specific legislation following intense negotiations with the government and backlash from the public.
In return for this support, the government agreed to six additional amendments, including the creation of an independent panel to review detention orders, the removal of harsher aggravated offences for breaching pandemic orders and a new joint committee that will not be controlled by the government.
Mr Barton said his amendments to the Bill had ultimately “curbed the powers of the premier”.
He said that the addition of the joint committee to oversee public health orders was a great improvement.
“My relationship with the government is frosty at the best of times,” Mr Barton said.
“I’ve been battling them all the time and I did what had to be done.
“I’m comfortable with what we’re putting up. This is a very different beast than what we had previously and we can’t compare where the Bill started from, you can’t compare it with a state of emergency.”
The revised Bill was sent back to the Labor-dominated Lower House on Wednesday afternoon to be debated once more.
It returned to the Upper House for a final vote, expected at the time of the print.
Speaking after the marathon sitting, Mr Quilty said his colleagues “interrogated the reach of the powers and explored the changes in the new amendments”.
“We pointed out that the so-called safeguards were nothing but window dressing,” he said.
“Unfortunately the government had the votes it needed and the Bill passed the committee.
“The rights and liberties of Victorians have been diminished and now are at greater risk.”
Justice Party MP Tania Maxwell said the Bill gave too much power to any government of the day and allowed for the long-term “segregation, detention or exclusion of citizens”.
