Andrews hit for lack of recovery plan

MORE Victorian workers will be living off the Federal Government’s wage subsidy scheme than people from every other state combined before the end of the year, new data says.

Analysis from Treasury also reveals the brunt of the economic hit caused by the second coronavirus wave has been felt by Melburnians, with regions avoiding some of the pain.

Josh Frydenberg on Sunday launched an attack on Daniel Andrews’ handling of the virus and failure to release an economic recovery plan.

The Treasurer slammed the Premier for a “litany of failures” having a “devastating impact” on his home state.

Treasury analysis showed almost 30,000 more Victorians had started receiving unemployment benefits since the end of June – more than half of whom joined the unemployment queue over the past two weeks alone.

The wages of almost one million Victorians are already been supplemented through the Federal Government’s wage subsidy scheme.

Treasury estimates that by December, about 60 per cent of the 2.24 million scheme recipients will be in Victoria.

Melburnians have been harder hit than regional Victorians in the second wave, with an 8 per cent jump in unemployment recipients in the city compared with 3 per cent in the country.

Victorians are also spending less on their households since the second lockdown began when compared with the rest of Australia.

Discretionary spending also plummeted, dropping 45 per cent in recent weeks.

It comes after the Sunday Herald Sun revealed that Victoria’s second wave of coronavirus was costing the state between $300m and $400m a day in economic activity.

A leading economics and analytics firm said the cost of the current lockdown could run as high as $25bn.

Mr Frydenberg on Sunday said Mr Andrews had added economic pain by failing to outline the road out of restrictions for businesses.

“There’s been a litany of failures in Victoria – obviously quarantine is the most graphic of that,” he said.

Mr Andrews on Sunday said he had “no interest” in fighting with Mr Frydenberg.

“He’s got a job to do and so do I,” he said. “There is no economic recovery until we get the health problem fixed.”

He said it did not make economic sense to emerge from the other side of the second wave and support businesses without restrictions to control the spread of the virus.