Andrews’ ‘ring of steel’ costs more jobs each day

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews’ profoundly disappointing non-steps towards opening up his state, announced on Sunday, reflect his centralist “big government know best” mindset. They also show deep distrust. New COVID-19 cases in Victoria (one on Saturday, two on Sunday) are fewer than in NSW. But Mr Andrews does not appear to believe in the ability of his health system to keep the virus at bay through effective contact tracing. Nor does he trust the public to gather safely in restaurants, clubs and bars, to visit family and friends to watch Richmond and Geelong battle it out at the Gabba on Saturday or even to sit in a church, synagogue or mosque at a safe distance. At this stage, relaxing the 5km rule to 25km and allowing haircuts, golf games (but clubhouses remain closed) and opening swimming pools (with limited numbers) are token gestures. Retail and hospitality businesses will have to wait until next month to reopen. The hotel and restaurant sectors have good reason to be bitterly disappointed.

To the detriment of the state and national economy, Mr Andrews seems determined to impede the private sector from getting on with trading, making profits and providing jobs. He has urged frustrated business owners: don’t defy the rules and open up, come to us for help. The state budget, he promises, will be “unprecedented” in providing for economic repair. What he does not seem to grasp is that often the best thing governments can often do is get out of the way and let the private sector get on with business. As Business Council of Australia chief Jennifer Westacott warned on Sunday, easing social restrictions and extending the 5km rule to 25km is pointless if nothing is allowed open. For businesses hanging on by a day, not a week, the Premier’s strategy was inexplicable, as she said.

It is also increasingly erratic. On Saturday, Mr Andrews lashed out at federal Health Minister Greg Hunt for suggesting Victoria was ready to open up in line with the approach in NSW. Mr Hunt’s advice was insulting, Mr Andrews claimed. “Minister Hunt is not an epidemiologist,” he said. But Catherine Bennett, who holds the chair in epidemiology at Deakin University, also said Mr Andrews should have gone further. “Provided people are keeping to the rules when they go out, it doesn’t matter if they travel 25km or 50km or 100km as long as they stay within that defined boundary,” she said on Sunday. What mattered, Professor Bennett said, was that people understood whether what they were doing was safe.

At his press conference Mr Andrews struggled to explain the rationale for the 25km limit. His heavy-handedness is scant preparation for the day, which must come sooner rather than later, when Victorians cast off from the shore and begin living with the virus, taking sensible precautions while getting on with their work and their lives. The health, mental health and financial impact of Mr Andrews persisting with his “ring of steel” long past its use-by date will be profound, as Scott Morrison, Josh Frydenberg and Mr Hunt warned on Sunday. Every day Victoria remained under restrictions carried a heavy cost, they said. More than 1000 jobs had been lost, on average, every day. “There has also been a 31 per cent increase in mental health services being accessed under Medicare for the same four-week period up to October 11 in Victoria, compared with last year, while it has been only an 8 per cent increase in NSW and 7 per cent nationally.”

The latest Business Outlook from Deloitte Access Economics notes Australia’s economy during the coming years is set to bounce back hard and fast from the COVID-19 shock. But Mr Andrews’ policies, unfortunately, are impeding that process for no good reason. When European nations increasingly are floundering with soaring COVID-19 infections, he is entitled to take pride in the fall in the state’s daily total of new infections from 725 to two. But hard on the heels of the hotel quarantine debacle, his government has made another terrible decision. Prolonging what remains one of the world’s strictest lockdowns, when daily cases have fallen to one or two, is an egregious error. It will cost 6.5 million Victorians dearly in terms of their finances and wellbeing. Irrational “we know best” centralism has run amok in our second-largest state. It is costing Victoria and the nation dearly. It must be reversed now.