Recovery, with a stumble back

Post-COVID-19 recovery is gathering pace. Retail sales soared back to life in May as restrictions eased, with turnover up almost 17 per cent — the highest lift on record. Boosted by the Morrison government’s instant asset write-off scheme, new car sales surged last month to 110,000, an 84 per increase compared with May. The beleaguered tourism sector also is plotting its way forward. A new Tourism Restart Taskforce plan delivered to Scott Morrison on Friday urges the national cabinet not to reverse the easing of restrictions unless “serious and transparent health benchmarks are compromised”. The plan, as Joe Kelly writes, calls for sensible advances such as a trans-Tasman “travel bubble” by the end of this month, immediate reopening of state borders and bilateral health agreements to facilitate international travel by September. These steps, the industry says, would “revive hundreds of thousands of jobs”. The optimistic plan has much to recommend it. But its call for JobKeeper to be extended until at least the end of the year for some businesses is problematic. Taxpayer largesse needs to be limited.

Amid recovery, the spike in the virus in Melbourne is a “kick in the guts” as Tourism Accommodation Australia chairman Martin Ferguson says.

The Andrews government’s poor management of the outbreak is clear. On Friday, senior bureaucrats were axed from a taskforce overseeing hotel quarantining after it was revealed security guards contributed to outbreaks in Melbourne. Like the NSW inquiry into the Ruby Princess debacle, Victoria’s judicial inquiry into the hotel quarantine fiasco must be open and transparent. Government ministers cannot expect to hide behind it.

Authorities also must do more to encourage citizens to be tested, after 10,000 people refused. In another slip, a man has tested positive to COVID-19 in Sydney after being allowed to leave hotel quarantine in Melbourne. He tested positive to COVID-19 on June 16 after returning from Bangladesh but was cleared on June 24 without a retest.

The response to the outbreak also has shown lockdowns have limitations when the virus is spreading. Ten hot spots were locked down on Wednesday, but by Friday the area with the third highest number of active cases, in Melbourne’s inner north, was not among the 10. On the positive side, the 66 new cases announced Friday were down from more than 70 on the previous two days. A bad stumble has highlighted the ongoing dangers of the virus. But signs that the economy is rebounding will boost confidence.