Sydney (Tribune International, Release from Jodi McKay MP, 8 May 2020): Labor is reiterating its call for the Berejiklian Government to release a COVID-19 roadmap to recovery for NSW that would include specific benchmarks for the easing of restrictions and re-opening of businesses.
NSW Labor Leader Jodi McKay said: “NSW deserves a clear, transparent and staged roadmap out of this crisis, that is firmly grounded in science and guided by our experts. It must indicate a clear line back towards secure jobs.
“The Berejiklian Government needs to take the people of NSW into its confidence. Tell us what needs to happen for our State to open back up, and tell us the steps that you will take along the way to reopen our economy.
“Businesses big and small, schools, churches and community organisations will require accurate and helpful guidance to reopen. The Premier has ordered teachers back to classrooms and it is time she also got the NSW Parliament back to work. It is time to start debating the COVID Emergency Measures Bill — and a single sitting day between now and September is not enough.”
Parliament will hold a truncated emergency sitting next Tuesday but there is to be no Question Time and there are no further sitting days planned. Labor has been consistently calling for a full parliamentary schedule to be established.
In a letter to Ms Berejiklian today calling for a roadmap, Ms McKay expressed concern that businesses were not being given clear direction on how to proceed.
Ms McKay noted that the Berejiklian Government was not following the lead of other Governments in Australia and the rest of the world, where roadmaps to recovery have already been produced.
“If places like Scotland, Switzerland, the United States, New Zealand and even the Northern Territory can produce a roadmap, then the NSW Government should be able to release one too,” she said.
And Ms McKay noted that when quizzed yesterday at a Legislative Council inquiry, Health Minister Brad Hazzard refused to commit NSW to any kind of roadmap to recovery.
