The country MP who has a town as a coronavirus hotspot is dead against the rest of regional Victoria being held back on the road map out of stage three restrictions.
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But member for Polwarth, Richard Riordan, said he wouldn't want Colac, which is dealing with a second major COVID-19 outbreak, being subjected to city-style restrictions including a curfew if the situation got out of control.
Colac has 29 active cases, but Mr Riordan said he was confident its present dramas could be mopped up within two weeks due to the community being on board with its localised contact tracing regime which brought the initial wave down from more than 100 cases to just eight.
"I would expect to be back to zero within two weeks, but the rest of Victoria shouldn't be locked down because we are sitting at 29 cases," he said.
"But I draw a line that we should be put in with Melbourne.
"We got our first wave under control because at a localised level we took charge.
"When a local community takes charge, keeps everyone informed and works together, you get very good results, very quickly."
But with no new regional cases reported yesterday and the 14-day rolling average dipping under the government benchmark of five, Premier Daniel Andrews flagged restrictions could be further eased next week.
"If the trend continues, and the numbers are very promising, we'll be able to take a step, or steps, as early as toward the end of next week," he said.
"And that then avoids having to divide the state up into regions, have police enforce all of those boundaries."
Mr Riordan, a Liberal MP, said the bulk of Colac's second wave of cases wouldn't have happened if a local resident didn't contract the virus at a city hospital.
He said it should serve as a warning to all regional areas and hoped the government would develop protocols preventing a repeat of the scenario.
"Wodonga or any town in country Victoria is sending people to Melbourne for specialised treatment on a daily basis," he said.
"It's outrageous that after seven months (this government) hasn't got a protocol in place to manage that.
"If big city hospitals aren't safe, people need to be warned and a protocol put in place."
Other regional centre Geelong and Bendigo have 11 and two active cases respectively after recent outbreaks.
