Treasurer Josh Frydenberg puts heat on Daniel Andrews to open up more of Melbourne

Melbourne will exit lockdown from midnight on Thursday, marking 262 days of stay-at-home orders as the world’s most locked-down city.

Harlow venue manager Therese Trevenen with Alex Bird in the Richmond pub, which is gearing up for a busy weekend. Picture: Aaron Francis

Melbourne will exit lockdown from midnight on Thursday, marking 262 days of stay-at-home orders as the world’s most locked-down city.

The end of Victoria’s sixth and final Covid-19 lockdown comes as the nation as a whole hit the 70 per cent adult vaccination rate needed to move on to the next phase of the national cabinet’s plan to reopen the nation.

From 11:59pm on Thursday, Victorians will be able to welcome up to 10 guests to their homes, and hospitality venues will open to up to 20 patrons indoors and 50 out, with many city bars planning to open their doors on the stroke of midnight to enable patrons to celebrate the end of the lockdown.

In a farcical end to restrictions, which have at times featured bans on children using playgrounds and parents eating or drinking while supervising them, Melburnians face the prospect of being fined on their way to the pub on Thursday night in breach of Daniel Andrews’s curfew.

Josh Frydenberg. Picture: Gary Ramage

The end of lockdown in Victoria comes as Covid-19 cases and hospitalisations have continued to fall in NSW after its easing of restrictions, with only 283 new cases ¬announced on Wednesday

The number of Covid-19 hospitalisations in NSW now sits at 552, down from a peak of 1266 in September. More than 81 per cent of the NSW adult population is now fully vaccinated and 92.3 per cent have had their first dose.

Josh Frydenberg called on the Victorian Premier to quickly give Melbourne residents the same freedoms as those in Sydney in the interests of boosting the economy.

“The sooner we ease restrictions and give the people of Victoria the same freedoms enjoyed by the people of NSW at 70 per cent vaccination rates, the sooner we will get our economy moving again,” the Treasurer said.

In contrast with NSW, where shops opened from 70 per cent, non-critical retail will remain closed in Victoria until the 80 per cent mark is reached – likely on or before October 31. Events and entertainment are off the menu until October 30, when the Andrews government plans to “trial” a crowd of 4000 for a concert at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl ahead of 10,000 at the Melbourne Cup the following Tuesday, with crowd limits of 150 indoors and 500 out elsewhere after 80 per cent.

 

Economists say Victoria’s reopening – more than a week after NSW came out of lockdown – cannot come soon enough, with federal Treasury modelling estimating the cost of the latest 11-week lockdown at approximately $700m a week, or $7.7bn. The economic hit of Melbourne’s slow reopening is expected to continue at a rate of about $500m a week for approximately 10 days until Victoria’s more substantive exit out of lockdown occurs at 80 per cent full vaccination statewide.

Mr Frydenberg is banking on an economic rebound as restrictions ease into the end of the year, while the Reserve Bank expects all the jobs lost through Delta will be regained by Christmas.

Daniel Andrews. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

“We know that once restrictions ease, businesses will reopen and the jobs will come back. This is what we are seeing in NSW, with spending up and job ads up as they come out of lockdown,” the Treasurer told The Australian.

A spokeswoman for Mr Andrews hit out at Mr Frydenberg’s “relentless negativity”, saying: “The only thing that has been keeping us from opening up sooner is the lack of vaccine supply from the commonwealth.”

In an August report, Treasury found that moving to “moderate” level of public health orders – broadly equivalent to those that will apply in Victoria from Friday – would reduce the weekly economic cost of health measures by 30 per cent.

Based on this, the $700m weekly estimated impact of lockdown would fall to a still sizeable $500m.

A more meaningful transition to the “low” level of restrictions due to kick in 10 days later – with no stay-at-home orders but social distancing measures still in place – would slash the weekly hit by 80 per cent, or down to $140m.

Victoria “Covid Commander” Jeroen Weimar confirmed on Wednesday that the curfew would continue to apply to people on their way to the pub.

“The directions change at midnight tomorrow night, so there’s no leave pass between 9pm and midnight tomorrow night … you’ll have to wait for the witching hour to make your way down to the local pub, and I’m sure there’ll be some pubs open,” he said.

A spokeswoman for the Andrews government later confirmed hospitality workers would be permitted to leave home during curfew hours to attend work, but patrons would still have to wait.

While inner-city Richmond pub Harlow will not open until lunch time on Friday, manager Therese Trevenen said demand for bookings had soared since Sunday, with 400 eager patrons expected from opening to midnight on Friday and the venue booked out. “Everyone is talking about how crazy busy is going to be this summer,” the 35-year-old said.

“There is also a lot of … fatigue and I think people are excited this is the last lockdown.

“There is a positive energy.”

Harlow has hired a security guard to enforce the requirement for patrons to display proof of their full vaccination status. Ms Trevenen said while staff were excited about returning to work, they were apprehensive about pushback against the requirement to flash a vaccine passport. “We would be in denial if we think we are not going to get some patrons who are a little bit disgruntled about it,” she said.

Victoria reported 1841 new Covid cases on Wednesday, and 12 deaths. The state is believed to have passed the 70 per cent full vaccination rate on Wednesday.