Published in The Herald Sun, 29 September 2020
Victorians are shell-shocked: footage on the nightly news shows an empty Flinders Street station and a ghost-like Bourke Street mall.
While the CBD is the ground zero of the COVID fallout, households and business all around Victorian face challenges in the wake of what has been a bruising 2020.
How do we rebuild?
The answer is jobs, jobs, and more jobs.
Nothing takes away the mojo of a region like widespread unemployment.
It’s devastating for individuals and drags on economic activity.
But there is plenty we can do to help Victoria’s 250,000 unemployed and 500,000 underemployed find work.
The federal and state governments need to lay out a bold plan for investment in infrastructure and social services.
There are many worthwhile choices that will create jobs and will make Victoria a better place to live.
A boost to social housing construction, some already announced, will help support jobs in the construction sector and could help make a dent in the long waiting list for housing places.
Improving the environmental sustainability of public buildings would help the transition to a greener future.
Investing in care creates jobs that are going to be there for the long haul.
Spending in areas of social need such as mental health, aged care, and childcare should be the top of the list.
An intensive tutoring program to help disadvantaged students catch up on learning lost during remote schooling would create jobs for tutors and deliver long-term benefits to Victoria’s children.
But we must also do more to revive some of our most dynamic sectors that have taken the hardest hits: Universities, the arts, tourism and hospitality.
Victoria is the education state, our universities are first class, and international education is our biggest service export.
But campuses and the surrounds have become ghost towns, and staff are being let go in the thousands because international student revenues have dried up.
Governments should work with the sector to reopen our unis to international students in 2021. If we can nail the safe entry (whether through expanded quarantine or more rapid pre-and post-arrival testing), Australia will have a unique selling proposition as a low-COVID (or even hopefully a community COVID-free) destination.
Major competitor destinations like the UK and US are already promoting their offer and we should do the same.
International tourists will take longer to come back, so many tourism businesses and regions will need to pivot towards local visitors.
The market is big: Victorians spend more money travelling overseas than international tourists spend here.
If only a fraction of the dollars spent in Phuket or Portugal were spent in Mildura or Metung, local businesses could thrive again.
We should be urged to do our patriotic duty and holiday in the regions once it is safe to do so.
Governments can also help revive our tourism, arts, and hospitality sectors directly.
Electronic voucher and discount schemes are being rolled out in Australia and around the world, with enthusiastic take up.
The Tasmanian domestic tourism voucher scheme was fully subscribed within an hour.
In the UK, the ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme gave diners a government-funded discount for eating out on Monday to Wednesday nights in August, boosting restaurant spending by a third.
A move to COVID-safe hospitality will see more bars and restaurants taking to the streets. Councils need to support outdoor dining by creating more on-street seating, closing roads, and recolonising carparks.
They should also reduce the costs and red tape associated with liquor licenses and other permits, to help businesses get back on their feet.
And it shouldn’t just be dining going al fresco.
Arts performances, retail, cinemas, and even some aspects of office life can migrate to our parks and underused public spaces.
The only limit is our imagination, bureaucratic appetite, and Melbourne’s famous weather.
As lockdown restrictions ease, the next six to 12 months will determine the path of Victoria’s recovery.
Building back better is possible, but it will require the creativity and flexibility of Victorians, backed by major government investment in jobs and activity.