Mask wearing will continue to be a feature of public life in Tasmania for at least the next month, with Public Health unable to provide an end-date for its protective mandate.
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New South Wales has scrapped its blanket indoor mask wearing mandate, where masks must now only be worn on public transport, in hospitals and aged care settings, in airports and on planes, within prisons and large indoor music festivals.
Tasmanian barrister and human rights advocate Greg Barns said it was time to rethink the Tasmanian laws, including the mask mandate, that forced people to behave in a particular way.
He said mask wearing should now become voluntary and not compulsory.
Mask wearing should be a matter of choice in any settings other than those that are high risk.
- Barrister and liberty advocate Greg Barns
"One of the features of this pandemic is that the rights of individuals have been subordinated to the collective good," Mr Barns said.
"Wearing a mask is an imposition on individual liberty and whilst it might be extremely useful you have to constantly evaluate whether or not they remain necessary. We should scrutinise the need to continue these incursions, and when it comes to masks, the question now is whether or not masks are still of use in all settings," he said.
"It should be a matter of choice in any settings other than those that are high risk."
But Womens Disabilities of Australia policy officer Tess Moody said mask wearing remained an important protection for those with disabilities or underlying medical conditions.
"People with disability are really frustrated around the narratives of 'let's just scrap masks and get on with our lives'," Ms Moody said.
"Some people with disability who are immunocompromised, they can't even access vaccinations because of medical issues, and so masks are there only option.
Premier Peter Gutwein said Tasmania had always taken a cautious approach when it came to COVID, "and we need to continue to protect members of the community that are more vulnerable".
Public Health deputy director Scott McKeown said current health and social measures were keeping transmission of the virus at a minimum.
He could not provide a date for when the mask mandate would be likely to end, but said a review would occur within the next two to four weeks.
"We want to make sure we continue to maintain that level of slow transmission in the community, which is very important until we have a much higher booster rate."
