Business bosses demand Andrews let Victorians back to work
The heads of seven of Australia’s biggest businesses have written an open letter to Daniel Andrews, saying there is an urgent need to “kickstart the economy” and demanding Victorians be allowed back to work before the state suffers a major brain drain.
Coronavirus
Don't miss out on the headlines from Coronavirus. Followed categories will be added to My News.
The bosses of seven of Australia’s biggest employers are demanding Daniel Andrews let Victorians get back to work.
In an open letter, the leaders of Wesfarmers, Coca-Cola Amatil, BHP, the Commonwealth Bank, Orica, Newcrest Mining and Incitec Pivot have pleaded for the economy to be kickstarted “urgently”, with a staged return of workers to their offices and small businesses reopened.
“The current situation is not sustainable. Victorians are hurting badly, personally and economically,” they said in the letter sent to the Premier on Tuesday night.
The seven leaders — whose businesses employ a total of almost 200,000 Australians — told Mr Andrews they had spent millions of dollars on COVID-safe plans over and above the state government’s health requirements.
In a stern intervention, they said Victoria was facing “social and economic challenges of an unprecedented scale” and warned of a brain drain from the state if the economy could not reopen.
“We urgently need to kickstart our economy, and as leaders of some of Victoria’s biggest businesses we want to do our bit,” the letter said.
“We urge you now, in light of the excellent recent progress, to permit the careful and staged return to the workplace of office workers and the small businesses that provide services to them.”
“Safely opening up more Victorian workplaces, based on medical advice and guidance, and enabling the collaboration and creativity that will result, is critical to our state’s economic future.”
Their plea came as federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg told the Herald Sun the state government needed to give businesses certainty to reopen “sooner rather than later”.
Mr Frydenberg, who has been embroiled in a war of words with Mr Andrews, said it was crucial to reopen the city as Christmas drew closer.
“This period and the lead-up to Christmas is so important to the turnovers and profits of the retail sector and the hospitality sector as well as others,” he said.
“In Victoria I’m just hoping they can get back to work in a COVID-safe way now that the daily numbers of cases is into the single digits.
“It’s great that people can go play tennis and golf and go down to the skate park, but they also need their jobs back.”
Retail and hospitality businesses are not due to reopen until November 2, although Mr Andrews has flagged that date could be brought forward if case numbers remained low and mystery cases were tracked down.
The business chiefs — including Commonwealth Bank’s Matt Comyn, BHP’s Mike Henry and Rob Scott from Wesfarmers — praised the progress made to tackle the second wave of virus during Victoria’s lockdown.
But they pointed to the concerns of medical experts about the “devastating effects” of ongoing restrictions, as well as Victoria’s rising unemployment rate.
“Victorians want to work, to use their skills and talents to their fullest extent, but they aren’t able to,” they said. “We recognise the serious risks that must be managed in a staged reopening, and that our people must be confident if they choose to return to the office.”
Under the state government’s plan, anyone who can work from home will likely have to continue doing so into next year, a barrier to the CBD’s recovery in particular.
But the business leaders said the successful COVID-safe operation of companies interstate provided a “wealth of expertise” for Victorian employers to seize, as they backed the state government’s improved contact-tracing system to manage any new cases.
“Our businesses have chosen Melbourne because of this great city’s ability to nurture and attract great people capable of doing great things, supported by the small businesses that make Melbourne one of the most liveable places on earth,” they said.
“With Victoria having made such progress against the virus, it is time now to provide more Victorians with the ability to return to their workplaces in a safe and staged manner.”
Since the beginning of September, about 800 Victorian businesses a day have been signing up to access the federal government’s $100bn JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme.
MORE NEWS
NEW CASE MAY BE REINFECTION, DAN HINTS AT EASING
FRYDENBERG FIRES BACK AT ANDREWS: OPEN NOW