Growing Calls To Support Locked-down Staff In Australian State

CANBERRA, Australia — Australian capital Canberra is resisting widespread calls to financially back Victorian workers affected by a snap coronavirus lockdown.

There are hundreds of thousands of hospitality staff affected by the week-long restrictions who no longer have access to JobKeeper payments.

The nation’s peak hospitality body is calling for temporary, targeted assistance for workers and businesses forced to close in Victoria.

Australian Hotels Association boss Stephen Ferguson said almost 230,000 workers across more than 26,000 businesses had been left with no income and nowhere to turn for help.

“We understand the public health orders are put in place to make Australians safe,” Ferguson on May 28.

“But the latest seven-day lockdown in Victoria highlights again that workers and businesses are stuck with no coordinated scheme in place to look after the welfare of businesses and workers financially impacted by the restrictions imposed on them.”

The lockdown has been primarily blamed on failures in hotel quarantine and the sluggish vaccine rollout, which are both Commonwealth responsibilities.

The state government is preparing to announce a support package for small businesses smashed by the lockdown, which is expected to deliver an AU$2.5 billion ($1.93 billion) hit to the Victorian economy.

But there are suggestions the Commonwealth is reluctant to help because it does not want to set a precedent.

Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt deferred questions about economic supports to the state government.

“They have said they will be providing additional support and we take them at their word,” he said.

“This is a difficult time and I’ll leave those matters to the treasurer, but it’s the Victorian government that has indicated they will be taking measures.”

Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino has indicated the state government will provide support to businesses, but also suggested the Commonwealth needs to help casual workers.

“Wage subsidies are entirely a matter for the Commonwealth government so we will not step into that place,” he told reporters in Melbourne.

Federal opposition frontbencher Mark Butler said the Morrison government had left Victorians high and dry.

“Ripping away JobKeeper while the vaccine rollout was running so far behind schedule was always economically dangerous,” Butler informed reporters.

“We now see Victorians dangerously exposed economically.”

Butler tweeted “Scott Morrison has two principal jobs this year- a speedy, effective rollout of the vaccine and a safe national quarantine system. He’s failing both.”

Greens leader Adam Bandt has called for JobKeeper to be reintroduced during the lockdown in Melbourne.

MP Anthony Albanese tweeted “More than a year into the pandemic, and with millions of Australians in another lockdown, it’s clear Scott Morrison doesn’t have a plan to beat Covid-19.”

(Edited by Vaibhav Vishwanath Pawar and Praveen Pramod Tewari)