THE Victorian Government will need to regain the trust of the Mildura electorate due to the impacts of the second wave of COVID-19 and subsequent border closures and harsh restrictions.

Member for Mildura Ali Cupper told Victorian Parliament on Friday she would not support the Public Health and Wellbeing Amendment Bill – which proposed an extension of State of Emergency provisions for another six months.

Ms Cupper said the second wave had caused a “trust deficit” the government would need to overcome.

“Unlike the first wave, the second wave felt avoidable,” she told parliament in a speech on Friday.

“This made it much harder to bear. The cracks in community trust opened up.”

Ms Cupper highlighted the plight of the Murrayville community as a specific example of government inaction.

She said the hard border closure denied Murrayville residents access to Pinnaroo for any purpose, such as for food, fuel or medical supplies.

“Murrayville was also without fuel,” she said.

“Three Governments had at least a week’s notice to help. We tried desperately, in increasingly heated conversations with Ministers and staffers, to get help on the border. No-one came through.

“In the end, it was the local citizens who carried the risk and responsibility of setting up a makeshift fuel depot. The same town that sent CFA crews to the fires in East Gippsland where virtual cities were set up overnight.

“In Murrayville’s hour of need there was nothing.”

Ms Cupper was denied the opportunity to vote on the bill because she had to attend parliament remotely rather than put public safety at risk by travelling to Melbourne.

However, she felt obliged to put on the record the feelings of her constituents.

“The impact of the second wave on my community deserves to be known,” she said.

“And my community wants it on the historical record. It is especially important given they don’t have the dignity – even symbolically – of a vote in the Parliament today because it’s not safe enough for their MP to attend.”