Corporate Australia demands a path out of pandemic pain

Corporate leaders say Australians must be offered a “light at the end of the tunnel’’ as vaccination rates rise.

Big business is demanding an end to lockdowns to give Australians a “light at the end of the tunnel’’ as vaccination rates rise.

Eighty major companies employing nearly a million Australians – including BHP, the Coles Group, Optus, Qantas, Telstra, Wesfarmers, Woolworths and the nation’s biggest banks – have written an open letter to governments to “chart a path out of lockdowns’’.

“Providing a light at the end of the tunnel will encourage more Australians to get vaccinated,’’ the letter says.

“We need to give people something to hope for, something to look forward to, something to plan around, and to be confident about their futures.’’

QANTAS CEO Alan Joyce. Picture: Jeremy Piper

The letter says lockdowns were effective in suppressing the virus last year and slowing its spread.

“At the same time, we can also see the impact of lockdowns on our people, on our customers, on our small business suppliers, and on communities and families right across the country,’’ the businesses state in the letter.

“Australia is juggling a mental health emergency at the same time as a global pandemic.

“Some of the impacts of current lockdowns are hidden, and the effects will be long lasting.

“As vaccination rates increase, it will become necessary to open up society and live with the virus, in the same way that other countries have done.’’

CBA CEO Matt Comyn. Picture: Adam Yip

As state and territory leaders bicker over border closures, the powerful companies urge governments to “stay the course’’ and stick with a National Cabinet agreement to ease pandemic restrictions once 70 per cent to 80 per cent of Australians are vaccinated against Covid-19.

“(This) balances the risks from Covid in a more vaccinated population, with the risks of indefinitely keeping our country divided and cut off from the world, our children out of schools, our friends apart from loved ones, and our small businesses closed,’’ the letter says.

“Businesses will continue to do whatever we can to support our people to get vaccinated and to provide a safe environment for our customers and the community including the prioritisation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities as originally intended.’’

Coles chief executive Steven Cain. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

The corporate intervention follows an open letter from News Corp Australasia’s executive chairman Michael Miller last week calling on corporate leaders to “champion the vaccination roll out’’ to get the country “back to full operations”.

“We have to urgently rediscover our Australian sense of purpose and unity and show the world what a fully vaccinated, fully functioning nation can achieve,” Mr Miller wrote.

“People who have already endured so much disruption and upheaval do not deserve to be kept in a state of isolation and uncertainty without a clear path forward.”