Steve Bracks: Budget, business, students key to COVID comeback
Victoria needs special attention in the federal budget, to throw its doors open to international students and make it easier for businesses to hire if we’re to bounce back bigger and better from our COVID lockdown, writes Steve Bracks.
Opinion
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It is looking like we are going to emerge from our COVID lockdown sooner than expected thanks to the strong leadership of Premier Dan Andrews.
When that happens, we have the opportunity to make Melbourne an even more liveable city, and for all parts of Victoria to prosper.
To quote Joe Biden, we can “build back better”.
COVID-19 has not simply meant massive economic hardship for many in our community, it had also put into sharper focus numerous weaknesses in how our economy is structured and regulated.
We need policies to stimulate demand in the short term, and then to enhance Victoria’s economic efficiency and social wellbeing in the medium to longer term.
Those hardest hit by this recession are the one in five Australians who are casuals working in hospitality and retail, predominantly young people and women.
Job keeper should be extended for this group.
We need a renewed effort to attract industry and investment into Victoria. Now is the time to ease the burden of payroll tax to make it easier for businesses to employ.
We can support regional Victoria by holidaying at home.
And we need to provide immediate targeted support for the creative sector.
Melbourne is the cultural capital of Australia because we have a vibrant creative community that has been devastated by the lockdowns.
As summer approaches, our outdoor spaces like the Sidney Myer Music Bowl, Federation Square, our gardens and our sporting fields across the state can become safe places for people to gather and for the commercial entertainment sector to begin to get back on its feet.
The Melbourne City Council is introducing a range of sensible measures to increase outdoor dining and bring the CBD back to life including closing city laneways to traffic, pop-up art galleries in empty shops, more and safer bike lanes.
We need to follow the New York example and embrace outdoor dining rain, hail or shine.
Victoria’s prosperity has been underpinned by population growth which creates demand for accommodation, goods and services.
As a priority we need to open our state back up to international students.
In 2019 there were 225,000 international students studying in Victoria.
As well as enriching our cultural life they were our biggest export earner.
The UK and the US are Australia’s main competitors for international students.
Both opened up too early and COVID numbers are dramatically rising.
Our hard lockdown will pay dividends if we can attract international students to Victoria as a safe haven.
The federal and state governments need to create a corridor for international students to safely enter Victoria.
This will involve charter flights, attractive quarantine arrangements and ongoing incentives for secondary and university students to study in Victoria, including public transport discounts.
At the same time the federal government needs to make arrangements to get the tens of thousands of Australians stranded overseas home so we can then move to reopen immigration with strict quarantine controls.
Victoria needs special attention and dollars in the federal budget to be delivered on October 6.
We have endured the economic and social pain of the hard lock down for the benefit of all Australians.
The federal budget needs to acknowledge that.
We have multiple infrastructure projects that can be fast tracked with an early injection of federal government support.
The Melbourne Airport Rail link hubbing through Sunshine is a prime example.
A fast rail connection between Sydney and Melbourne is another.
In addition to thousands of construction jobs, towns along the Melbourne – Sydney corridor would boom.
The federal government must get its head out of the sand on climate change and invest in renewables and recycled water projects.
And address the urgent need for, and benefits of investment in social housing.
Building 30,000 social housing units across Australia over the next four-year period, and accelerating the maintenance and renovation of existing social housing stock would provide a much-needed stimulus for the economy, provide a pipeline of jobs for tradespeople, and a long-term solution for the 2000 homeless Victorians currently being housed in hotels due to COVID.
The human impacts of COVID-19 are unique in our lifetime.
As a community Victorians have worked and sacrificed together – we now have the opportunity to create a better, fairer world.
Steve Bracks was Premier from 1999 to 2007
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