Victoria’s COVID-19 curfews were not backed by public health, emails show
Australia’s Victoria province imposed curfews on citizens during COVID-19 without any advice from public health experts, according to Rebel News.
Newly released emails, obtained by Liberal MP David Davis via a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, show that then-Victorian Premier Dan Andrews announced a curfew hours before hearing from his health advisers. Andrews announced the draconian policy on August 2, 2020, at around 3:30 PM. It was only at 5:05 PM that Deputy Chief Health Officer Finn Romanes sent an email to Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton addressing the curfew, noting that it was a cabinet decision not backed by public health advice.
“The idea of a curfew has not arisen from public health advice in the first instance,” Romanes wrote. “The action of issuing a curfew is a mirror to the State of Disaster and is not occurring on public health advice but is a decision taken by Cabinet and announced today, as an important step in the response.”
A half hour later, Sutton replied: “Your assessment is correct as I understand it,” adding: “There appears to be merit in it limiting opportunities for transmission, perhaps especially in high risk cohorts.”
The delay between Andrews’ announcement and Romanes’ email indicates that public health officials had not endorsed the curfew.
“It was not based on ‘health advice’ but was announced by Andrews peremptorily,” MP Davis said. “The detailed exchange was very late in the day, just over two hours before the curfew was due to come into effect at 8pm … [This] shows it was not conceived by health officials.”
The ‘Coronavirus Dictator’
The news is no surprise to Victorians who recall Andrews’ authoritarian measures during the pandemic, earning him the title of “Coronavirus Dictator” from the Washington Post. He was quick to pull the trigger on harsh lockdowns in response to low caseloads—sometimes as little as 22 cases in the entire state—keeping Victorian citizens under six separate lockdowns for a total of 262 days.
Andrews kept taxpayers under lockdown long after he was warned that the measure would cause a mental health crisis. In October 2020, Australian Health Minister Greg Hunt urged Andrews to end lockdowns, which he said posed a “risk to mental health.”
In September 2021, Andrews promised taxpayers “new freedoms” if 70% of the population received a dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Freedom meant that two individuals could meet outdoors for four hours—up from two—within 10 kilometers of their homes. This was in addition to the time allotted for exercise.
The lockdowns had a devastating effect on Victorian children, causing high psychological distress in 70% of high school students. Suicide and self-harm rose sharply in adolescent girls and anxiety surged among children, with some refusing to return to school. In 2023, mental health experts blamed lockdowns for the high dropout rates among high school students in Victoria.
Nevertheless, last year, Andrews became the chairman of Orygen, a mental health research clinic.
