00:00During the pandemic, Daniel Andrews often maintained his government was following the health advice.
00:08Guys, right to go.
00:09But in August 2020, it was the Premier's call to declare a state of disaster,
00:14enforcing a six-week curfew from 8pm to 5am for Melbourne's 5 million residents.
00:21It is not an easy decision to make, but it is the decision that is necessary and that is why I have made it.
00:26Four and a half years on, documents obtained by the opposition under Freedom of Information reveal
00:31the curfew wasn't based on health advice.
00:35In an email to Chief Public Health Officer Brett Sutton seeking approval to issue a public health direction
00:40just hours before the measure began, Public Health Commander Dr Finn Remains wrote
00:45The idea of a curfew has not arisen from public health advice in the first instance,
00:50but both Dr Remains and Professor Sutton did support the measure.
00:55Professor Sutton wrote there appears to be merit in limiting opportunities for transmission,
00:59perhaps especially in high-risk cohorts.
01:02In this case, it was not a health-based scientific decision.
01:08It was a whim of one man.
01:12Despite pinning the blame on the former Premier, the opposition wants answers too from the current one,
01:17who, at the time, was one of the seven-member crisis cabinet that approved the curfew.
01:23Why did she not question that? Why did she not step forward and say,
01:28actually, this is too much?
01:30The government wasn't talking today, but in a statement said it did what was needed
01:34to protect Victorians during the pandemic, working closely with public health experts
01:40on a response to COVID-19 that protected lives and livelihoods.
01:45A clearer picture on how the pandemic was handled with documents the government fought in court to keep secret.
01:52So, let's see.
01:53Let's see.
01:54Let's see.
01:55Let's see.
01:56Let's see.
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