Victoria’s Treasurer, Tim Pallas, acknowledges the shutdown of the state’s construction industry for two weeks will mean “economic trauma” for all those businesses and workers doing the right thing.

But he insists there’s no choice given the public health risks due to “broad-scale non-compliance” across the industry increasing the spread of the virus. Add to that days of angry Melbourne street protests, sometimes violent, by a mix of construction workers and assorted anti-vaxxer opportunists.