City-centric lockdown stopping country communities getting back on their feet

Winding back of COVID-19 restrictions in Victoria must be common sense.

Daniel Andrews’s blanket ban on all Victorians going back to the workplace unfairly disadvantages regional communities, particularly those that have never recorded a positive case of COVID-19.

Today in State Parliament, the Premier refused to consider excluding country people from the work from home order, despite just three active COVID-19 cases currently recorded in regional Victoria.

Forcing country people to work from home because the Andrews Labor Government doesn’t have a plan to manage social distancing on public transport and in high-rise office lifts in Melbourne doesn’t make sense.

Most country Victorians drive themselves to work and are not exposed to the risk of Melbourne’s overcrowded public transport system.

Drought, bushfires and now the coronavirus pandemic have left many country people out of work and smashed regional economies.

We will all keep doing our bit to keep our communities safe and save lives.

Allowing country people to get back to the workplace with appropriate physical distancing in place, while maintaining the restriction in Melbourne where thousands of office workers travel to the CBD every day, is a sensible move that will secure jobs and businesses in regional Victoria.

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