Andrews government secretly negotiating permanent pandemic laws to replace state of emergency

Greg Buchhorn, a lawyer and policy committee member of civil rights group Liberty Victoria, said the broad State of Emergency laws have resulted in some extreme intrusions on individual rights, such as forcing new prisoners to do 14 days of quarantine - “effectively solitary confinement” - even with little to no COVID-19 in the community.

“Because we don’t have clearly defined laws on what governments or bureaucracies can do, we’re giving away all this power and it has real-life consequences,” he said.