Victoria is in its own world of pain with businesses and individuals now suffering an extreme lockdown that will decimate the economy and spread across borders.

Under any lockdown scenario, it would always have been impossible to avoid lots of unintended consequences, considerable confusion about the rules and growing alarm at the economic impact. Under this relatively stringent version, that impact is massively multiplied with the Premier saying there would be progressive announcements over coming days.
Whenever you draw a line or write a list, there will never be complete clarity, he declared, insisting “heartbreaking” decisions are necessary now to avoid having to countenance even further restrictions later.
Dramatic reduction of movement
On government estimates, the new curbs and closures will add another 250,000 Victorians to the 250,000 already stood down and the 500,000 working from home and the 1 million students and staff no longer attending school. The aim is to dramatically reduce the movement of people around the community and thus the number of new COVID-19 cases, up by another 429 recorded Monday.
The list of measures includes imposing strict curbs on the states construction industry despite the Premier describing construction as the lifeblood of the Victorian economy. From Friday, according to Andrews, construction will instead be trickling along on pilot light levels for six weeks. That translates, for example, into a maximum of 25 per cent of the normal workforce allowed on commercial building sites and five people on residential building sites while the government is further scaling back its work on major infrastructure projects.
Most manufacturing businesses except for those supplying medical and protective equipment and food supplies will have to shut. Meatworks will reduced to two thirds of their capacity with a workforce dressed in the same protective equipment as health care staff due to the infections experienced in abattoirs.
Retail stores like Bunnings and JB Hi-Fi – previously extraordinarily busy due to the focus on home renovation and working from home will now no longer be open to anything but online shopping or click and collect arrangements. From hairdressing and lawnmowing to administrative and professional services, most service industries are banned from this week. Takeway for cafes and restaurants can continue but under even stricter operating conditions . Most road and rail transport will remain open along with mining, agriculture, power, wholesale warehouses, service stations and banking and communication services considered essential.
Andrews insists theres no need for panic buying as everyone will be able to purchase all the food supplies they need if not necessarily just what they want. Thats hardly likely to reassure everyone.
But more importantly, the combination of changes will swing through the entire state like a giant wrecking ball, destroying vast swaths of activity. That in turn threatens to spread the economic infection beyond Victorias borders even more quickly than the virus.
Instant evaporation
A restrained Morrison didnt openly criticise Andrews extensive list but distanced the federal government and repeatedly emphasised the decisions were those of the state government.
I know that, across Victoria, many today, frankly, would have reached breaking point, trying to come to terms with what has happened in their state, what it means for them, what it means for their family, what it means for their businesses, the Prime Minister said.
Andrews is promising further details of increased enforcement and punishments, including the deployment of more Australian Defence Force personnel. He thanked Morrison for many productive conversations over the past few days, insisting the Commonwealth and the state governments are closely co-operating.
But the federal government is also watching the instant evaporation of even the slightest optimism about somehow limiting the extent of the economic damage centred in Victoria. It appreciates an instant government response to deal with the worst of this emergency is not just a problem for the Andrews government.
No national government can rely on having time to deliberate over the best possible policy to assist a state in such economic extremis with demands for help only becoming more urgent. In the COVID era, the notion of an October 6 budget seems a decade away.
So Scott Morrison immediately announced a $1500 pandemic leave disaster payment for Victorians without annual leave who need to self isolate and are not eligible for other government payments. A joint letter from the Business Council of Australia and the ACTU had already described a national paid pandemic leave scheme as an essential public health measure.
The Prime Minister is also urging more affected Victorians to apply for JobKeeper and JobSeeker payment and predicts more shared assistance from federal and state governments once Canberra gets a clearer understanding of Dan Andrews list.
But what is already clear is Victorias Lockdown 2.0 looks more like the end of the beginning than the beginning of the end when it comes to living with the virus.