"The new Federal Treasury estimates of the extent of the expected toll on the national economy of the Victorian lockdown reinforces the deep concerns that businesses have about their ability to continue to provide employment for hundreds of thousands of people and in some cases about the survival of their businesses," Innes Willox, Chief Executive of the national employer association Ai Group, said today.
"The severity of these impacts is mind-boggling and sets Victoria up to be Australia's economic laggard. The national cost of the lockdown is estimated to be $10 and $12 billion and between 250,000 and 400,000 jobs are expected to be lost.
"It is critical that the Victorian Government acts quickly to make sure that the real damage is scaled back as much as possible and as rapidly as possible.
"While progress seems slow, the Victorian Government is working to address the concerns industry is bringing to its attention about the lack of clarity and the range of anomalies with, and unintended consequences of many of the original restrictions and closures.
"Businesses such as metal fabricators and others in the metals supply chains have received very welcome adjustments and can now proceed with a greater degree of confidence.
"We are grateful to the Victorian Government for addressing these and other concerns raised by Ai Group. We are also hopeful of making progress in the critically important logistics industry.
"Further clarification is needed on the detail around opening and closing for companies, but we are pleased the State Government has maintained clear avenues of communication for organisations like Ai Group to provide coal-face information to the Victorian decision-makers. The response to the flow of feedback needs to be prompt and effective," Mr Willox said.
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