A Victorian businessman, hotelier Julian Gerner, has engaged Bret Walker SC and Michael Wyles, QC to act on his behalf in a High Court challenge to Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews' lockdown.
Richard Baker from Melbourne Masthead The Age has revealed the legal challenge exclusively this morning.
According to Baker, proceedings are expected to be filed today asking the High Court to determine "whether the 5km rule and the need for worker permits is a disproportionate response to coronavirus and contrary to the implied constitutional rights of freedom of movement within states to undertake personal, family, recreational and commercial endeavours an otherwise go about normal lives reasonably."
At the time of writing there are 189 active cases of coronavirus in Victoria, which has a population of 6.689 million. That's 0.0028% of the population infected with the virus. The 14 day rolling average for Melbourne is 9.3.
The High Court challenge comes as the Victorian Premier extended Victoria's "state of disaster" for another four weeks, giving police far reaching powers, as opposed to "state of emergency" powers, which gives the Chief Health Officer powers and has a six month time limit.
Victoria has been in various stages of lockdown since on or around March, save for a two week reprieve in July before the "second wave" hit.
A hard lockdown was put in place on August 2, meaning Victorians must stay at home. Permitted reasons to leave the house are work (if it can't be done at home and with a permit to do so), exercise, food/essential shopping, medical and care needs. In addition, the government imposed a 5km radius rule upon leaving the house. Recently the one hour time limit on outdoor exercise was extended to two hours, and face masks are mandatory.
City dwellers who have a permit to drive to regional areas were instructed yesterday that the lockdown restrictions "travel with them", i.e - they cannot eat at a restaurant, shop (or get that desperately needed hair cut ) whilst in regional Victoria. Regional businesses will be slugged with a $10,000 fine if they serve a city slicker.
At the same time, the Andrews government is trying to pass the Omnibus bill through the upper house of parliament in Victoria, which has been described as a massive "power grab" by the Andrews government.
"I also congratulate the legal experts and thousands of everyday Victorians who have reached out to members of Parliament, many for the first time, to express their alarm at this massive power grab." - Shadow Attorney General Edward O'Donoghue as reported by ABC.
Meanwhile, the legal challenge to Andrews' curfew is still ongoing in a separate Supreme Court proceeding, brought by cafe owner Michelle Loiello. She said she lost 99% of her business by the 8pm curfew imposed across Melbourne. The case was complicated by the fact the government unexpectedly withdrew the curfew on the day the court case started. Marcus Clarke QC (son of Olympian runner Ron Clarke), represents Loiello in the curfew case.
Small Business Australia placed full page advertisements in Melbourne's newspapers over the weekend calling for an alternative to the current lockdown ("the harshest lockdown rules in the Western world") and the "roadmap" out of restrictions.
Some took to the skies with a similar message.