New lockdown ratchets up economic pain in Australian city

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Thursday that the lockdown, which extends across Victoria state but is less restrictive beyond Melbourne, was expected to cost the national economy up to 9 billion Australian dollars (USD 6.5 billion) in the September quarter.


PTI | Melbourne | Updated: 06-08-2020 15:52 IST | Created: 06-08-2020 15:52 IST
New lockdown ratchets up economic pain in Australian city
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A bright side for plant nurseries of Melbourne's first pandemic stay-at-home order was that many householders took the time to garden. But the latest lockdown in Australia's second-largest city is far tougher. More than 250,000 people were thrown out of work on Thursday. Those whose jobs are deemed essential need government-issued permits to travel the near-empty streets of a virtual ghost town to get to their jobs.

The rolling restrictions have created confusion and uncertainly in a population navigating Australia's toughest-ever lockdown that makes masks compulsory and imposes an 8 pm-to-5 am curfew. Melbourne gardener Simon Collings said the nursery and hardware industries became the surprise winners of the city's original lockdown in March when home improvement became a popular pastime.

"The first time, everybody went: 'Oh my god!' and then everything turned out to be fine," Collings said. "Gardening was one of the few things you could do at home, so nurseries did well for three or four months ... but it has a totally different feel this time," he added.

Customers can order deliveries or buy online and collect but cannot enter a range of businesses including nurseries. John van der Horst, who also owns a Melbourne nursery, said the new shopping restrictions had "changed things dramatically." The real economic pain to nurseries is expected to come in September with the Southern Hemisphere spring.

"Right at the moment (business) is slow and might be confusing, but I think that will take a day or so to sort out and things will move on, but clearly the business is not going to be the same through this lockdown," van der Horst said. Downtown bookshop owner Bill Mort also offers a service known as click-and-collect, in which customers buy at a website then collect from the store since he was forced to close on Thursday. But there is some uncertainty about whether a desire for a book is reason enough to justify leaving home under the latest pandemic rules.

"There's a grey area or a question as to whether buying a book is necessary or not and a number of booksellers are grappling with the click-and-collect ... aspect of this," Mort said. "I think there's a fair amount of room for interpretation within these restriction guidelines," he added.

The Melbourne lockdown is not only hitting the local economy. Melbourne usually accounts for a quarter of Australia's economic activity. Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Thursday that the lockdown, which extends across Victoria state but is less restrictive beyond Melbourne, was expected to cost the national economy up to 9 billion Australian dollars (USD 6.5 billion) in the September quarter.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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