The COVID-19 Omnibus (Emergency Measures) bill entitles authorities with additional powers to carry out arrests on people who are deemed as a COVID-19 health direction risk.
“The Bill would expand the emergency powers to allow an authorised officer to detain; any person that the authorised officer reasonably believes is likely to fail to comply with an emergency direction and is a close contact of anyone diagnosed with COVID-19,” they noted.
Other issues raised were that authorised officers would be given the power to detain an individual who may be a risk without defining a sentencing length. Third parties who are not police or public servants can also be permitted by the government to operate as authorities.
“Authorising citizens to detain their fellow citizens on the basis of a belief that the detained person is unlikely to comply with emergency directions by the authorised citizens is unprecedented, excessive and open to abuse,” they said.
The bill also states that the government could also be given the power to allow anyone they deem appropriate to exercise authoritative powers, even if they are not police or public servants.
“We call on the Legislative Council to amend the Bill, or to vote against it,” the group said.
He justified the bill by stating that if the policies are implemented correctly, it can be managed.
“If you’re going to have COVID site plans enforced if you’re going to have people doing the right thing so that we jealously guard the low numbers that we are in the process of actually delivering, then you need to have a bigger enforcement team, and not play many different roles,”
The Omnibus (Emergency Measures) Bill was voted through a Labor dominant lower house on Sept. 18 and is due to be debated in the upper house of the Victorian parliament next month.
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