Greens call for HARDER lockdowns like the restrictions that froze New Zealand so Australia can try to eliminate coronavirus
- Adam Bandt has questioned whether Victoria should have come out of lockdown
- Victoria recorded 165 new cases of coronavirus in their growing second wave
- The Greens leader said Australia should have followed New Zealand’s strategy
- He believes pursuing an eradication strategy is best way to eliminate the disease
Adam Bandt has questioned whether easing lockdown restrictions in Victoria was the right call after the horror second wave outbreak of coronavirus.
The Greens leader spoke on Sky News on Thursday when he argued Victoria should have stayed under strict lockdown measures for longer to lower the chances of a further COVID-19 outbreak.
‘If you look across the ditch at New Zealand where they stayed the course, you wonder what might have been in Australia,’ he said.
‘This push for everything to reopen, while in some respects it’s understandable, we’re seeing in Victoria what happens if you don’t have a health first response.’
An empty street with a closed restaurant in the inner Melbourne suburb of Prahran on Thursday after the tough new lockdown was introduced
Mr Bandt said the urge to return to normalcy left Victorian communities vulnerable to the disease.
He believes the best chance of eliminating coronavirus is by emulating New Zealand’s success through pursuing an eradication strategy.
‘I think we’ve got to ask questions about whether this idea of “we have to things moving again” and “we have to start reopening again” was the right call,’ Mr Bandt said.
Victoria recorded 165 new cases of coronavirus on Thursday as Melbourne began the first day of a six-week lockdown.
Members of the Melbourne Fire Brigade prepare to take food parcels to residents in a locked down public housing estate in Melbourne on Thursday
Thirty of the new cases were linked to known outbreaks – including 18 at nine public housing towers – and the source of the rest was being investigated.
The figure was Victoria’s second worst after it recorded 194 new cases on Tuesday, prompting Premier Daniel Andrews to seal off Australia’s second-biggest city.
Mr Bandt said the Greens supported unpopular lockdown measures as the best means of containing the second wave outbreak.
‘No one likes these lockdowns and no one likes going back into lockdown after having previously enjoyed a degree of freedom of movement,’ he said.
‘This is about protecting lives. This is about making sure we contain any further outbreaks as much as possible within the Victorian and of course the broader Australian community.’
A closed sign is seen at the front of a restaurant on Chapel Street in the inner city suburb of Prahran on Thursday
A child stands at the window in a housing commission tower at Flemington on Thursday