Bill Shorten wanted Victoria’s restrictions lifted sooner but Labor’s leadership backs road map

Bill Shorten says he wanted Victoria’s lockdown restrictions to ‘come off a bit quicker’ but Richard Marles endorsed the controversial road map.

Former federal opposition leader Bill Shorten says he wanted Victoria’s lockdown restrictions to “come off a bit quicker”, as Labor’s deputy leader Richard Marles ­endorsed the Andrews government’s controversial roadmap out of the second wave.

With business slamming the plan, warning the thresholds for reopening were too onerous and would kill off thousands more companies, Mr Shorten, a Victorian, said he had been inundated with complaints following the state Labor government’s roadmap announcement on Sunday.

The former Labor leader appealed to the Andrews and Morrison governments on behalf of small businesses in his Melbourne electorate of Maribyrnong to offer more support, saying they should be able to write off losses over a longer time frame like farmers could in the middle of drought.

“I’d sort of hoped that maybe the restrictions would come off a bit quicker, I’ll be honest,” Mr Shorten told Nine’s Today show.

“But no one can fault that Dan Andrews is giving it 100 per cent and that … it is the health problem (that’s the priority).

Business up top, casual down the bottom: Richard Marles attends Parliament from his Yarra street office. picture: Glenn Ferguson

“People have got two attitudes at the moment, and I think they’re sort of a bit in tension with each other. One is they’re angry. They’re over this lockdown. I’ve been under restrictions for 69 days in my family. I’m over it. But people also just want to see (the outbreak) finished. They want to see that beaten. I want to see the case numbers come down.”

Like Scott Morrison, Mr Shorten hoped the Victorian Premier’s four-step plan to a “COVID normal” was a “worst case scenario” and that if cases fell quickly restrictions could be eased sooner.

There is not due to be a significant relaxation of restrictions until late October and November, when Victoria would have to reach no new cases for a fortnight before making it to the last step.

Mr Marles said the Andrews government’s plan, which would be driven by data, was “appropriate” during a health pandemic.

“The roadmap is what has been put forward by the Victorian government to try and provide a sense of guidance to the people in Victoria about what is

Secretary of the ACTU Sally McManus believes the strategy will help Australia avoid ‘serious mistakes’ made by other countries. Picture: AAP

our pathway to reintegration with Australia,” he told The Australian.

“This is a detailed description of the way in which both metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria get their way back into a place where we reintegrate with the country.

“Of course there are businesses, workers and families who are doing it extremely tough right now, and none of us wants to be under these lockdown measurers a day longer than we need to be.”

Australian Council of Trade Unions secretary Sally McManus also backed the lockdown strategy, predicting more people would die and COVID-19 cases would spread interstate if Victoria did not get infections under control.

Ms McManus said “so many countries have made serious mistakes in how they reopened after lockdown”.

“The careful, staged opening in Victoria is different, aiming to keep infections within what can be suppressed with testing and contact tracking,” she said.

Labor frontbenchers on Tuesday lashed the Prime Minister after he accused the Andrews government of sentencing Victoria to a lockdown longer than necessary due to inadequate contact tracing.

Opposition health spokesman Chris Bowen said on Facebook: “What if Scott Morrison fixed his COVID-19 app instead of blaming premiers for everything?”

Mr Marles said Mr Morrison’s attack was a “very unedifying spectacle to watch”.