Victorian government losing the fight to contain coronavirus

A woman holds a sign at the North Melbourne housing commission flats on Sunday. Photo Luis Enrique Ascui

The Melbourne public housing shutdown is a clear sign of a government running out of time to contain the virus.

Forget all the cliches about Daniel Andrews and his cabinet.

The government does not want to be doing this on several key levels, some of them political.

The global pandemic lesson is that the virus spreads rapidly in high density, low socio-economic housing.

The residents are less likely to have access to the best medical care and advice and have inferior facilities.

A sign is seen taped to a window of an apartment at a public housing flat in Flemington reading 'Dictator Dan we are not criminals! This is Classism Discrimination Martial law'.

There are few lifts, few places to wash clothes and there are often language barriers.

None of this is to condemn the less well off, rather to point out that the situation in Flemington and North Melbourne is highly complex.

Geographically, the worst of the virus contamination in these latest outbreaks, has been in the outer suburbs.

Now we are seeing the virus start to become highly active in the inner city.

It is on a march, with activity right up to the CBD.

With this is mind, it looks like the government is losing the fight to contain it.

It will be no surprise if within the next week or two there are markedly wider lockdowns.

Strategically, there should be discussions within government about whether it has the right structures to respond long term to the crisis.

Andrews is absolutely relying on an inner sanctum crisis Cabinet but now may be the time to widen that advice.

Particularly given the size of some of the mistakes committed while executing the emergency response.

The hotel quarantine scandal is utter political folly and driving these latest outbreaks.

Andrews, at the same time, is losing respect nationally for having exposed the country to what looms as a significantly longer economic hibernation than might have been necessary.

The stakes have always been high.

But, having all but tethered the virus, 25 per cent of Australia’s engine room is now close to being shut down for the second time.