Calls for Melbourne restrictions to be eased

There are increasing calls for Daniel Andrews to reassess Victoria’s restrictions and one measure could make a difference to those struggling.

There are calls for Melbourne’s 5km lockdown rule to be doubled to 10km to help struggling businesses in the CBD.

Melbourne Deputy Lord Mayor Arron Wood believes the 5km rule is hurting inner city businesses and should be doubled.

“Small businesses are the lifeblood of our economy & they must be front of mind as we take steps to reopen our city,” Cr Wood tweeted.

“I’m calling for the 5km radius rule for Melbourne to be extended to 10km to help struggling city businesses & Queen Vic Market traders.”

Cr Wood, who is running for Lord Mayor at next’s month’s council election, believes that extending the 5km limit would provide more customers for city businesses, as they would be in reach of suburbs like Footscray, Port Melbourne and Prahran.

It would also help Queen Victoria Market traders, which are struggling as almost two-thirds of their regular customers live outside the 5km radius.

“With school holidays coming up, it would also offer up more options for families who live between five and 10km from the CBD; they could go for a COVID-safe walk through some of our renowned gardens, and then pick up lunch or dinner before heading home,” Cr Wood told the Herald Sun.

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Cr Wood would also like to see people return to work in shifts or weekly rotations. He believes this would support traders and the mental health of workers.

It comes as the chiefs of some of Australia’s biggest companies, including CSL, BHP and Wesfarmers, urge the Victorian government to lift Melbourne’s 9pm curfew.

The chief executive of biotech company CSL, Paul Perreault, said he didn’t see the rationale for the curfew and it wasn’t happening anywhere else in the world.

Mr Perreault said the Victorian Premier should “rethink and ­relook at this road map”.

“From what I have seen of it and read of it, it seems to be inconsistent and using data that doesn’t make a lot of logical sense,” he told The Australian.

“These thresholds are just not workable for any society. I’m not a scientist by training, I am a pragmatist and when I look at the other road maps around the world … this one is very difficult to swallow. We are calling for balance. We know there will be more debt, more ­national debt and generations to come will be paying for this.”

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Melbourne’s CBD is empty of people. Picture: Jay Town

Mr Perreault’s comments were backed by BHP chairman Ken MacKenzie, who said the shutdown was causing “irreparable damage to livelihoods, communities and the economy”.

Telstra chief executive Andy Penn said he was worried about the impact on the community and Wesfarmers chief executive Rob Scott said he was concerned about people’s mental health as well as the impact on businesses.

There have been calls for the curfew to be abandoned after it was revealed the measure was not based on medical advice but was instead introduced by Daniel Andrews to make policing easier.

“If you want to go out and be unlawful now police have got the easiest set of arrangements they have ever had to catch you and fine you,” Mr Andrews told reporters. “That’s what a curfew delivers.”

Scientists such as infectious diseases expert Professor Peter Collignon of the Australian National University have also questioned whether the criteria for easing restrictions is reasonable.

Melbourne University dean and assistant vice-chancellor of health, Shitij Kapur, a psychiatrist neuroscientist who helped produce the modelling used for Victoria’s road map, said the models had not justified the political decisions the government had made, in a piece published in the Weekend Australian.

Professor Kapur and James McCaw, a professor of mathematical biology, questioned the state’s target to bring down coronavirus cases to less than five over a two-week period by October 26.

“Yes, it is possible,” the professors wrote. “But it would be quite a ­remarkable achievement and a model cannot assure that.”

On Sunday, Health Minister Greg Hunt said the professors had made it clear that their model didn’t ­dictate specific thresholds or targets.

“They were concerned in particular that the five-person ­accumulative and rolling average numbers and the zero case numbers may be unachievable,” Mr Hunt said.

“They have suggested that the modelling should be redone and that the road map should be ­redone in consultation with the academic community, the business community, the broader community, and the commonwealth — and we agree with that.”

However, Mr Andrews said on Sunday it was “unlikely” he would revise the road map for reopening.

“The passage of time is, I know, very painful, very challenging for businesses and for families, but in terms of taking safe steps, it is a positive thing,” he said.

“Despite the pretty vocal criticism from many in the business community, I have had no business leader come to me and say: ‘the best outcome here is to open and then have to close again.’ That just doesn’t make any sense.”