Lockdowns should be the last resort

Despite our best efforts to move past it in 2021, Covid-19 continues to wreck lives and livelihoods. 

Our Covid recovery appeared on track a few weeks ago; business confidence was at record highs and Melbourne CBD was starting to get its mojo back.  

In mid-June, the picture is very different. Victorians have battled through their fourth lockdown of the pandemic – taking Australia to a total of 33 days of state-imposed lockdowns in the first half of 2021 alone. Unfortunately, this tells us the Covid impacts are likely to be with us for the remainder of the year. 

The financial impact of those two weeks is over $2 billion in lost retail turnover alone. If we still had the safety net of JobKeeper and other government support measures it would be easier to look past that figure. But the stark reality is, there is no safety net.  A few hundred dollars for a narrow band of workers, coupled with inaccessible, tiny grants can’t compensate businesses for the losses they’ve incurred. And it’s not enough to keep many small businesses afloat. 

Few would question the need for a critical health response, yet businesses are quite rightly asking how governments can justify continuing to turn them on and off like a light switch whenever new Covid cases emerge in the community. 

Lockdowns just aren't sustainable without some kind of genuine financial safety net for business. CBD retailers, and small businesses in particular, are at breaking point and sadly some will not reopen following the most recent restrictions.  

Keeping the community safe is critical, but full lockdowns as an automated response must be questioned.  Earlier this year, the WA Government announced a lockdown in Perth when there was just one case in the community, yet in NSW community outbreaks have been managed for over a year using a hot spot approach which allows businesses to stay open, while keeping other restrictions in place to ensure community safety.  

The uncertainty and confusion around ‘trigger points’ for lockdowns has been a confidence killer and one of the key lessons out of this pandemic is to have a nationally consistent approach, with clear criteria, so business can at least operate with some sort of certainty. 

The most recent Victorian lockdown will have flow on affects for many more weeks as it takes some time for people’s confidence levels to return. It’s unlikely we’ll see an immediate surge of people back into offices or shops.  

In the midst of this devastating impact, a new levy is set to be introduced and applied to business in Victoria as a payroll tax surcharge – which is essentially a tax on jobs. Now is not the time to be taxing businesses or impacting jobs – all our focus should be on recovery. If the Victorian Government wants to really support business, it would walk away from the payroll tax changes it announced in the recent state budget.   

The virus is far from behind us, and we have to learn to live with Covid and manage things in a responsible way without devastating business and livelihoods and without tipping the balance on mental health. 

 We need to ensure there is a sustainable solution to managing new outbreaks – one that balances community safety and business viability. Lockdowns should be left for a worst-case scenario and shouldn’t be the first option our political leaders rush towards. And when they do, the support that is in place needs to weigh up the true financial impact of lockdowns – not just skim the surface. 

This article first appeared in the Herald Sun on Sunday June 13th, 2021.