Coronavirus Victoria: Rage against the regime, end lockdown ‘torture’

Josh Frydenberg pleads with Daniel ­Andrews to open up business, warning Victoria now has 40 per cent of the nation’s effective unemployed.

The stoush between Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.

Josh Frydenberg, the nation’s most senior Victorian federal minister, has pleaded with Daniel ­Andrews to free Victorians from “devastating’’ coronavirus restrictions, warning that businesses are losing hope and the state now has 40 per cent of the nation’s effective unemployed.

The Treasurer sparked a bitter political row with the Victorian Premier on Monday when he ­accused Mr Andrews of “callous indifference” towards economic hardship in the state after restrictions on many businesses were ­extended for two weeks.

A dismissive Mr Andrews hit back, accusing Mr Frydenberg of playing politics when Victorians wanted their families kept safe so the state could reopen safely.

“He’s not a leader, he’s just a Liberal,” he said. “He’s just a Liberal and all he does is play politics every day.”

However, Mr Frydenberg is a passionate Victorian whose wife and children have been locked down while he delivered the COVID recovery budget in Canberra. He has directed $34bn in federal funding to the economically devastated state which has been forced into hibernation longer than anywhere else in Australia.

Political observers have noted he is a popular figure in his home state, winning 48,928 first-preference votes in his seat of ­Kooyong at the 2019 federal ­election while Mr Andrews ­received 19,649 votes in his state electorate.

Senior business leaders, including Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox and Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer Westacott, on Monday backed the Treasurer, warning that continuing lockdown restrictions were confining Victoria to protracted economic hardship. They seized on the fact that Victoria had had lower average rates of coronavirus infections than NSW in calling for restrictions to be lifted.

Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn retailer Gerry Harvey and Snowy Hydro boss Paul Broad also pushed for ­industry to be reopened in ­Melbourne. They seized on Victoria’s low case numbers and said businesses should be allowed to open, pledging they would be able to mitigate the risk of another wave of infection.

Mr Comyn said the lockdown was having a sharp impact on small business, with Melbourne bearing the brunt of the pandemic “much more harshly than other parts of the country”.

An emotional Mr Frydenberg said: “It’s not about me or Daniel Andrews. It’s about the Victorian people who are paying the highest price for the failures in hotel quarantine — failures for which ­nobody in the state government has taken responsibility.’’

He accused Mr Andrews of having a “callous indifference” ­towards economic hardship suffered in the state.

“The bloody-mindedness is ­unforgivable,” he said.

“There’s been a callous ­indifference in Victoria from the government to the loss of jobs and to the plight of small business.”

Mr Frydenberg said unemployment and mental health statistics told a devastating story about the tragedy in Victoria. “Victoria comprises 26 per cent of the nation’s population yet 40 per cent of the nation’s effectively unemployed,’’ he said.

“Now that the case numbers are down to single digits it’s time the Victorian government ­allowed millions of Victorians back to work and businesses to re-open in a COVID-safe way.

“If NSW was able to reopen, Victoria should too.’’

Mr Frydenberg said that with more than 1000 jobs being lost in Victoria every day of the lockdown, it now needed to end.

Mr Andrews hit back at an ­increasing number of interest groups calling for the lockdown to end, including eminent doctors.

Executive chairman of Harvey Norman Holdings Gerry Harvey.

Commonwealth Bank of Australia CEO Matt Comyn.

“People can have their own views but the views — you are helping me make my point — if you are the head of the AMA and you put forward the views of doctors to represent your members as you see fit,’’ Mr Andrews said.

“If you are head of the business council, you are there to put ­forward the views of your members and if you are the federal Treasurer, you were there as part of a government, you are there to put the views of the Australian community, not just the views of the party you come from.

“That’s the key difference, and I’ve not done it, nor will I.

“I am just about sick and tired of letting this slip because it’s the greatest insult to the people of ­Victoria, for them to be sitting in camera running these commentaries (while) the people in ­Victoria are staying the course, doing the right thing, making enormous sacrifices. I am so proud of everything that Victorians have done, just these last few steps are (not) made any easier by this sort of ­politicking.’’

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said lifting restrictions was “not a political issue’’.

“This is about lives and livelihoods and has to be above political argument,” Mr Willox said.

“We would all hope that the great difficulties being created in Victoria don’t turn into a political side show. There is much more at stake than that.

“The reality is that tens of ­thousands of businesses are at stake as are the livelihoods of their employees.

“The state government still has no economic plan to revive ­Victoria and we needed one weeks ago to give business ­confidence and certainty that they could keep going.

“The Treasurer is right to stand up for Victorian business. And we would hope the Victorian government does so too.”

Business Council of Australia chief executive Jennifer ­Westacott also backed the Treasurer: “He’s calling out a big issue here in terms of the fact that people in Victoria — particularly small businesses are on their knees.

“They have no certainty. They have no direction. And he (Mr Frydenberg) is simply expressing what is self-evident: that people, in order to have their freedoms, need to have their jobs back and their businesses back.”

Additional reporting: Perry Williams, Richard Ferguson, Imogen Reid