Federal parliament’s next scheduled sittings are in limbo, after the nation’s capital was plunged into a snap seven-day lockdown in response to its first local Covid-19 case in more than a year.
The ACT chief minister Andrew Barr suggested federal parliament may need to be postponed, saying that while the functioning of democracy was important, “it really must be done in a safe way”.
“Clearly there will be some decisions that individual MPs will need to make in relation to what they do in relation to this lockdown period,” Barr said.
“I think it’s too early to say at this point what the next parliamentary fortnight might look like and whether it may or may not need to be postponed.”
The Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tony Smith, on Thursday said restrictions had already been in place, and MPs who remained in the territory were classified as essential.
Addressing parliament, Smith urged anyone with symptoms not to enter the building and to test and isolate.
Parliament was sitting on Thursday for the last day of the current sitting fortnight. Many MPs had planned to stay in the capital next week in preparation for the final fortnight of sittings scheduled in late August and early September.
But many MPs are now expected to leave this afternoon before the territory’s seven-day lockdown begins.
Most will then be subject to state quarantine orders pertaining to the ACT.
Barr said that if any of the MPs had been at any of the 14 exposure sites then they would be expected to comply with the territory health orders, and at this point there were no special orders for MPs.
“With the greatest of respect to my federal parliamentary colleagues, they are not my highest priority at the moment, it’s Canberrans and the people I’m elected to represent,” Barr said.
“But I recognise they are a very significant part of our nation’s democracy – they and their staff are essential to the functioning of our government. So if we have any further specific advice for federal MPs, staff, and those who are working in parliament house, we’ll provide that through the presiding officers.”
Barr said he was “fairly certain” that the identified case was not related to Parliament House, however the government was not yet sure of the source of the infection – believed to be the Delta strain and most likely linked to the NSW outbreak.
