A new jointly funded package from the Commonwealth and Victorian Governments will give Victorian small and medium businesses the extra support and confidence they need to recover from the recent lockdown.
The new Victorian Business Support Package will deliver an additional $400 million in support to thousands of businesses, with funding to be split 50/50 between the Commonwealth and Victorian Government.
It will build on Victorian Government support for licensed hospitality and alpine venues, with $70 million for the Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund 2021 and $9.8 million for Alpine Business Support. Licensed hospitality venues can receive grants of up to $20,000 as their operations continue to be impacted by current restrictions. These grants recognise that larger venues depend more on dine-in and have higher operating costs, so need more support than smaller operations. An additional $2,000 will also be made available to the business if it is located within the CBD.
The package also includes a new $85 million Small Business COVID Hardship Fund and $156 million Business Continuity Fund, as well as delivering support for commercial tenants and landlords.
Find out more about the Victorian Business Support Package here.
Find out more about the Commercial Tenancy Relief For Victorian Businesses here.
The Victorian Government has announced a further easing of restrictions from 11:59pm on Thursday 8 July.
For a detailed overview of the statewide settings, see the latest Table of Restrictions (located at the bottom of the announcement). These settings will be in place for 14 days, subject to public health assessments.
Following is a high-level summary.
Victoria to move to statewide settings
Creative industries statewide settings (under the Restricted Activity Directions)
Check in everywhere, every time
All businesses and workplaces are required to use the Victorian Government QR Code Service, unless an exemption applies.
Victorians must check-in everywhere, every time. Businesses must ensure that every customer and visitor has checked-in, no matter how long they are at the premises.
Update your COVIDSafe Plan
Every business with on-site operations must have a COVIDSafe Plan.
Your COVIDSafe Plan is a list of safety actions that help reduce the risk of COVID-19 spreading in your workplace. It should be reviewed and updated regularly and discussed with your workers.
Get vaccinated – don’t wait until it’s too late
The vaccine reduces your risk of getting sick, and helps to protect your friends, family and community.
Please support your workers to get vaccinated. Appointments can be booked here.
More information is available at www.coronavirus.vic.gov.au.
Due to the epidemiological conditions in Australia, the Victorian Government has confirmed that there will be no changes made to the current restrictions in place for Victoria.
Following is a summary of the overall current restrictions and the restrictions for Creative Venues in both Metropolitan Melbourne and Regional Victoria.
Current restrictions
Creative venues: Metropolitan Melbourne
Creative venues: Regional Victoria
Tier 1 and Tier 2 public events with a COVIDSafe Event Plan that has been approved, and Tier 2 or Tier 3 public events that have been registered under the Public Events Framework can operate under current settings. No exemptions will be considered for events until the Victorian Government announces a further easing of restrictions
QR Codes
A reminder that all businesses and workplaces are now required to use the Victorian Government QR Code Service, unless an exemption applies.
Victorians must check-in everywhere, every time. Businesses must ensure that every customer and visitor has checked-in, no matter how long they are at the premises.
Support for businesses
There are a number of support programs available to businesses, with applications for the Victorian Events Support Package closing at 11:59pm Friday 16 July 2021. For more information and to apply, visit Business Victoria.
If Victorians have earned anything this year, it’s a break.
And with school holidays just around the corner, families deserve the certainty they need to plan ahead.
We all want to be back at birthdays and BBQs – to see friends, to explore the coast or take the kids on a trip somewhere new.
And while it's hard to know exactly what tomorrow might bring – Victorian families are relying on a little more certainty to help make those plans happen.
Which is why today, we're taking a big step forward. So that every Victorian can get together and spend more time together.
On the advice of the Chief Health Officer, restrictions in regional Victoria and metropolitan Melbourne will ease from 11.59pm Thursday 24 June.
And these changes won't just last a week – they'll remain in place for at least two weeks' time, meaning Victorians can plan and get back to doing the things they love.
Private visitors to the home will increase from two in Melbourne, and five in regional Victoria to 15 across the entire state – and up to 50 people can gather outside in a public place like a park.
Funerals and weddings will be capped at 300 people, and hospitality venues can serve up to 300 in Melbourne, but density limits still apply.
Masks must still be worn inside. But more people in metropolitan Melbourne can return to offices, with 75% capacity – or 30 people in a workplace – whichever is greater.
Players, parents and spectators can attend outdoor community sport within the total cap of 1,000 people.
And live music will have greater numbers in pubs, clubs and other hospitality venues across the state too, but dance floors are still closed for now.
Theatres will initially open at 50% capacity, with up to 1,000 people. And this weekend crowds can attend public events and outdoor stadiums with a limit of 50%, or up to 25,000 people.
But, subject to epidemiology and the advice of the Chief Health Officer, from 11:59pm, 1 July, they'll be able to host even bigger numbers:
That means 100% capacity at shows like Frozen at Her Majesty's Theatre, and Harry Potter at the Princess Theatre.
And indoor and outdoor stadiums will be able to increase to 85 per cent capacity – so that includes the MCG, Marvel Stadium, and AAMI Park.
For the next week, we’re recommending that those travelling to Victoria's alpine region get tested prior departing metropolitan Melbourne, especially if they’re staying overnight.
And there's lots more detail online too, and this will give Victorians the confidence to make plans and enjoy the school holidays.
And if you’re taking some time off over the next few weeks, go out and explore your state.
Head to the bush, stay at the beach – shop in a small town, and buy Victorian made.
And everywhere you go, remember to check in using the Service Victoria QR code, this is the seat belt we need as we open up the state.
But please, if you’re coming from afar, stay away from storm and flood affected areas in the state’s east.
Many roads still aren’t safe, many trees continue to fall, and accommodation is in short supply.
And while we all deserve a break and a chance to explore our state, please remember – if you have even the mildest of symptoms, get tested.
If you’re catching up with mates and you’ve got a sore throat – go another night.
If you’re heading to the shops and you’ve got a runny nose – just order it online.
And if you’re finally seeing Mum and you’ve got a cough – remember who it is you’ve made all these sacrifices for.
Whatever your plans are, it’s not worth risking everything we’ve achieved – please get tested.
Victorians have worked so incredibly hard to get to this point.
So, let’s protect it. For ourselves – and for each other.
CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK TO THE TABLE OF RESTRICTIONS FROM 11:59PM THURSDAY 24 JUNE
Restrictions in metropolitan Melbourne from 11:59pm Thursday 10 June:
Changes to restrictions in regional Victoria from 11:59pm Thursday 10 June:
Public Events
Under the current settings for Victoria, public events scheduled between 11:59pm, 10 June and 11:59pm, 17 June must operate under the Restricted Activity Directions for metropolitan Melbourne and regional Victoria.
No exemptions will be considered, even for those events previously approved for an exemption under the Public Events Framework. Events may need to be cancelled or postponed unless they are professional sporting events without spectators.
QR Codes
In addition, the Victorian Government has announced the intention to move to compulsory QR code check-ins for all workplaces, with some limited exceptions.
DJPR will be consulting with industry on these plans over the coming days and further details will be announced soon.
Under the current restrictions, every customer-facing business must use the free Victorian Government QR Code Service to check in customers, workers and all other visitors. A complete list of sectors where this is mandatory is available here.
Venues can now check in guests who don’t have a smartphone via the Kiosk check-in function. This lets staff enter a customer’s name and contact phone number electronically making it easier for contact tracers to contact people quickly if an outbreak occurs.
Every customer and visitor must check in, no matter how long they are at the premises. Businesses must also ensure that all visitors have checked in.
Support for businesses
The Victorian Government has announced it will provide additional support for businesses in greater Melbourne who continue to be affected by necessary health restrictions.
Those businesses that will still be affected by restrictions will share a new injection of $8.4 million.
The Victorian Government has previously announced $492.2 million of support for small and medium-sized businesses and sole traders, including the Business Costs Assistance Program, Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund and Regional Tourism Support Package.
Further information on the $20 million Victorian Events Support Package will also be provided soon, with event organisers, hosts and suppliers to benefit from the program.
Up to 90,000 businesses will benefit from the support packages announced over the past two weeks, with the total support for businesses over this period now beyond $500 million.
Other important information for businesses
All Victorians over the age of 40 are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine. For more information on how to book your vaccine appointment, visit the Coronavirus website.
Anyone with symptoms should get tested immediately. The list of testing sites includes wait times.
For more information, visit coronavirus.vic.gov.au or call the Business Victoria hotline on 13 22 15.
Make no mistake – our collective efforts over these past few weeks have changed the course of this outbreak. As individuals, as families and as a community, we have again done an incredible thing: protecting our state with grit, guts and determination.
Thanks doesn’t seem enough, but I’ll say it anyway. To every Victorian for following the rules, for doing the right thing, and for doing it with kindness and compassion – thank you.
For staying home and staying safe. For ordering in and taking out. For Zoom calls and virtual catchups. And for looking out for each other.
As much as we’ve achieved – this isn’t over. And it’s up to all of us to protect this precious thing we’ve worked so hard for.
That means staying COVIDSafe – most importantly, getting tested if you have any symptoms. It’s singlehandedly the biggest contribution we can make, ensuring that if the virus is circulating – we catch it early. Whether you do it for your family, your mates or your state – if you’re sick, get tested.
We’ve always said that when we could safely ease the rules, we would. And if we could make things even just a little easier, we wouldn’t waste a minute.
It’s why, on the advice of the Chief Health Officer, we can take some first safe steps. That means metropolitan Melbourne will move to almost the same settings currently in place across regional Victoria. And regional Victoria will move towards further easing.
From 11:59pm Thursday 10 June, the five reasons to leave home will no longer apply in metro Melbourne, and the existing 10-kilometre limit will be increased to 25 kilometres.
But wherever possible, we’re asking people to stay local. That means the only reasons to go further than 25 km will be work, education, care and caregiving, and getting vaccinated. And travel into regional Victoria to visit family and friends or take a holiday still remains a no go – for now.
We’re also still not in a position to be able to have visitors to our home, but outdoor gatherings will be increased to a maximum of ten people. And mask rules will be eased slightly – required inside, and outdoors when 1.5 metres isn’t possible.
In good news for families, schools will be able to resume face-to-face learning for all students from Friday.
Cafes, restaurants and pubs will open – with strict safety measures like density limits, seated service and QR codes in place. Remaining retail will also open. Hairdressing, beauty and personal care can resume, but only for services where masks can be kept on.
Weddings will be limited to 10 people, and funerals no more than 50. Fifty will also be the limit on religious gatherings. Swimming pools, entertainment venues and community facilities will also open subject to density limits. And community sport can happen, but only for training.
When it comes to work, there’ll no longer be a list – but if you can work from home, you should.
We also recognise that even with eased restrictions, some businesses still won’t be able to open. It’s why we’ll extend our support for closed businesses with a further $2000 top-up payment.
In regional Victoria, restrictions will also ease. Visitors to the home are allowed – limited to two people and their dependants – once per day. Public outdoor gatherings will be limited to 20 people.
There’ll also be increases to the capacity limits at places like restaurants, entertainment venues, community facilities and religious gatherings. Indoor sport, including gyms, will also be able to reopen with careful limits on the number of people permitted at any point in time.
There’ll be plenty more detail available online. But I want to assure people, subject to public health advice, we’ll have more to say about what further stages of easing will look like next week. That includes the regional border coming down and Victorians being able to travel more freely around the state.
For Melbourne, we’ll also look to further ease restrictions on venues and get community sport back to competition. We’ll also look at what more can be done to ease restrictions for businesses, without risking the gains we have made. Further work will also be done on easing for regional Victoria.
As always, we’ll make sure we keep people updated on how we’re tracking, providing more detail – and more certainty – as soon as we can.
Today is a good day, there’s no doubt about it. And we should absolutely be proud of what we’ve all achieved – but let me just say this:
It isn’t over yet, and until we have widespread vaccination, this virus will still be with us.
We all know how fragile this thing is. We’ve seen how easily it can take hold. And if we allow complacency to creep back even a little, we could lose everything we’ve worked so hard to protect.
There’s still work to do, there’s still our state to keep safe. And we’ll need every Victorian to help do just that.
CLICK HERE FOR THE LINK TO THE TABLE OF RESTRICTIONS FROM 11:59PM THURSDAY 10 JUNE
Australians who have had their hours of work and income significantly affected due to state lockdowns, will be eligible for a temporary COVID Disaster Payment.
The rapid support will be paid weekly to those workers who reside or work in a Commonwealth declared hotspot and are therefore unable to attend work and earn an income as a result of state imposed health restrictions, which last for greater than one week.
Eligible recipients will receive up to $500 per week for losing 20 hours or more of work, and $325 per week for losing under 20 hours. They must not have liquid assets of more than $10,000.
The payment will be made in respect of the second and any subsequent weeks of restrictions.
This support will be available for Australian citizens and permanent residents and eligible working visa holders. Individuals who are already receiving income support payments, business support payments, or the Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment will not be eligible for this new payment. To qualify, people will need to have exhausted any leave entitlements (other than annual leave) or other special pandemic leave.
The payment will complement existing payments including the Pandemic Leave Disaster Payment.
By making these payments available, the Australian Government will ensure that Victorian workers get the financial support they need to stay at home during this outbreak.
Access to Services Australia Disaster Assistance will be open to the public from Tuesday June 8 at www.servicesaustralia.gov.au or over the phone on 180 22 66.
Yesterday the Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino announced a new $250 million business support package, for small-medium size businesses including sole traders and events industry operators. Full details are still to come, but you can register to be notified here: https://business.vic.gov.au/grants-and-programs/circuit-breaker-business-support-package
While any support is greatly appreciated, Music Victoria are worried that many in our industry may still miss out due to anticipated eligibility requirements.
As such, we invite you to share with us the impact that this most recent Victorian Lockdown has had on your work in the Music Industry - https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfhAyOPchF84rZojR60YWeTEfOSajJgcN7_1fBFy7_moJWXRg/viewform
And if you need urgent financial assistance or just someone to talk too, please reach out to Support Act - https://supportact.org.au/
On the advice of our public health team, Victoria will move to circuit breaker restrictions from 11:59pm tonight. These settings will remain in place until 11:59pm on 3 June – but if we can end that sooner, we will.
As we've seen here, and across Australia, this kind of short, sharp action is effective in stopping this thing in its tracks.
Our public health experts’ prime concern: just how fast the B1.617.1 variant is moving.
Overseas, they haven’t been able to track how quickly this version of the virus can move. Here in Victoria, though, we’re seeing not only how quick it is – but how contagious it is too.
Our contract tracers are identifying and locking down first ring, second ring and third ring contacts within 24 hours. That’s faster than ever. And yet this variant is still moving faster.
The time between catching the virus and passing it on is tighter than ever. The ‘serial interval’ – how long it takes between the onset of symptoms in the first and secondary case – is in many cases just over a day.
And in just 24 hours, the number of cases has doubled.
It means that although these cases are all connected, this variant of the virus is making people more infectious, more quickly.
We’ve seen other countries come up against these variants and lose. Badly. Places like Taiwan that have gone from no or very low cases to skyrocketing numbers in the space of just days and weeks – and now are struggling to get it under control.
We also know our nation’s vaccine rollout has been slower than we’d hoped. And if more people were vaccinated, we might be facing a different set of circumstances. Sadly, we're not.
If we make the wrong choice now, if we wait too long, if we hesitate too much, this thing will get away from us. And lives will be at risk.
It’s why from 11:59pm tonight, there will be five reasons to leave home:
Food and supplies. Authorised work. Care and caregiving. Exercise, for up to two hours and with one other person. And getting vaccinated.
Exercise and shopping will be limited to five kilometres from home. If there’s no shops in your 5km radius, you can travel to the ones closest to you. Shopping is also limited to one person per day, per household.
Face masks will also need to be worn inside and outdoors – everywhere except your own home.
Private and public gatherings will not be permitted, although visiting your intimate partner continues to be okay. Single person bubbles will also be allowed.
Childcare and kinder will remain open, but schools will need to close other than for the children of authorised workers and vulnerable kids.
Shops like supermarkets, food stores, bottle shops, banks, petrol stations and pharmacies will also remain open. Cafes and restaurants will be able to offer take-away only. Gyms, hairdressers, community facilities and entertainment venues will all close. Non-essential retail may only open for click and collect.
Hotels and accommodation can only stay open to support guests already staying onsite. No new bookings can be made – unless it’s for one a permitted purpose, like authorised work.
Advice on who can open, and who can’t, will be made available online ahead of directions coming into place – as will the full list of authorised workers and workplaces.
It’s clear – more than ever – this virus isn’t going away. And vaccines are the only way we’ll ever get back to normal.
Without full vaccination, this virus will just keep mutating – and just keep making its way back in.
To that end, from tomorrow and dependent upon supply from the Federal Government, all Victorians over the age of 40 will be eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine.
My message to those Victorians: if you’re eligible, get vaccinated. Make your plan today.
If someone you love is eligible, make a plan together.
Do it for yourself. Your family. Your friends. Your community. Whatever your motivation – please do it.
Because vaccination is our only real ticket out of this pandemic.