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Matt JohnstonMajor Projects Editor

Matt Johnston is major projects editor at the Herald Sun. He is a former state political editor who has covered local, state and federal politics since 2008. He is a three-time Quill award winner and a Walkley Awards finalist.

@Media_Matt

Matt Johnston

Latest

Victoria

The soaring cost of Victoria’s transport projects

Whopping budget blowouts for Victoria’s major projects have been revealed — with the troubled West Gate Tunnel one of the worst offenders — and fears are growing worse is to come.

Victoria

Prominent Melbourne Restaurant owners take a stand against restrictions. (L-R) Nathalie Reymond (Gitan Group), Thierry Cornevan (Bistro Thierry), Rabih Yanni (Botanical Hotel), Guy Grossi (Grossi Florentino), Iain Ling (The Lincoln), Chris Lucas (Lucas Group), Antoine Reymond (Gitan Group), Liz Grossi (Grossi Florentino), Luke Stepsys (Panama Dining Room & Feast of Merit, Paul Dimattina (Lamaros Hotel) and Jean-Paul Prumetti (France-Soir). Picture: Jake Nowakowski

Restaurant bosses’ plea amid million-dollar losses

Melbourne’s top restaurant owners have banded together as they face combined million-dollar losses for every week of the lockdown.

News

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - FEBRUARY 08: A QR code is scanned by a spectator as they arrive on day one of the 2021 Australian Open at Melbourne Park on February 08, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

Where Victoria’s QR code system went wrong

When Covid reappeared in Melbourne, contact tracers raced to collect QR code data from businesses — but what they found didn’t add up.

UpdatedCoronavirus

BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - NewsWire Photos - MAY 18, 2021. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison visits Taipan Hose Systems in Caboolture, north of Brisbane.Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

Deal finally done for vital quarantine facility

Scott Morrison will help Victoria fund the long-awaited alternative to the state’s problem-plagued hotel system — here’s where it will be built.

Coronavirus

Blackboard Varsity general manager Wayne Keating with a QR Code system to electronically store your details when you wish to dine in for breakfast and coffee. Picture Glenn Hampson

QR code crackdown to aid contact tracers

With our contact tracing system pushed to the brink, new rules will force Victorians to sign in to every store — no matter the duration of the visit.

UpdatedCoronavirus

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MAY 29: A general view of play infront of an empty MCG during the round 11 AFL match between the Collingwood Magpies and the Geelong Cats at Melbourne Cricket Ground on May 29, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images)

AFL clubs to flee Victoria amid outbreak

Victorian AFL clubs are set to abandon the state in the fallout of Melbourne’s latest Covid outbreak, with mask rules and crowd limits likely to continue even after the snap lockdown ends.

ExclusiveCoronavirus

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - MAY 28: Staff are seen inside the Melbourne Exhibition Centre COVID-19 Vaccination Centre on May 28, 2021 in Melbourne, Australia. All Victorians aged 40 and over are eligible to receive either the Pfizer or AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccines as the Commonwealth COVID-19 vaccination program expands in the state. The vaccine program expansion comes as Victoria enters its first day of a seven-day lockdown following a COVID-19 cluster outbreak in Melbourne's northern suburbs. From midnight, all Victorian residents are subject to stay home orders, and are only allowed to leave home for five reasons: care and caregiving, exercise, work and to buy groceries, or to get vaccinated. The lockdown is effective from 11:59 pm Thursday 27 May to 11:59 pm Thursday 3 June 2021. (Photo by Darrian Traynor/Getty Images)

Vaccine ad campaign slammed as ‘too slow’

Secret documents have exposed major holes in the vaccination ad campaign, with complacency blamed for a “shockingly slow” jab rollout.

OpinionOpinion

(FILES) In this file photo taken on December 28, 2020 a government social worker gets vaccinated against the COVID-19 novel coronavirus with the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine, at the Military Field Number 1A in Mexico City. - A steady decline in coronavirus cases and rising levels of immunity from vaccination or infection suggest that the worst of the pandemic may be over for hard-hit Mexico, experts say. (Photo by Alfredo ESTRELLA / AFP)

Only people to blame for this lockdown are ourselves

We are desperate to point the finger but this latest lockdown may have been caused by our Covid complacency.

ExclusiveVictoria

N35ht104 Yarn about the West getting shafted with public transport Newport Train Station

Years of travel chaos ahead for commuters

Winter commuter chaos is likely to be the norm until 2025, with major roads and rail lines to be affected by a massive building blitz.

Victoria

Farmer Bob Davie with his Angus cattle and chickens on his Phillip Island property, Bimbadeen. Picture: Mark Stewart

How farmers can make big money saving the planet

The money spinner that can be tapped into by any Aussie farmer that’s turning crops, cattle and carbon into cash.

Original URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/journalists/matt-johnston/page/75