The Property Council of Australia has welcomed today's announcement by Premier Daniel Andrews that the current lockdown, Melbourne's fifth, will be lifted at midnight.
The Victorian Executive Director of the Property Council Danni Hunter said the end of the latest lockdown would give the city an opportunity to resume its recovery and build towards a post-pandemic future.
"Victorians should be proud to see the latest outbreak come under control, but the ultimate task is now up to all of us to roll up our sleeves. Vaccination is the only pathway out of this pandemic and the only pathway to full economic recovery for our state," she said.
"We now need an urgent focus from the Victorian Government to reopen our city as soon as possible by enabling people to return to living their lives safely and repositioning Melbourne and Victoria as a place to invest and call home. Melbourne's CBD recovery is critical to our state's recovery, and we know that every lockdown is a blow to this recovery.
"Melbourne's CBD contributes around seven per cent of the national GDP and 25 per cent of Victoria's economic output. Before the pandemic, the CBD was a premier destination for people across Victoria as well domestic and overseas visitors.
"Now the city's streets are deserted as workers have retreated to their home offices and other visitors have been locked out, inflicting immense pain on Melbourne's iconic retail and hospitality sectors.
"With every lockdown we take another step backwards and we can't afford to sit by and watch the CBD's slow demise without taking action. We need to look beyond the lockdown cycle and create a new vision to attract people back to the city to live, work and play.
"This includes a hybrid working model that enables people to work from home and the office, a stimulus package targeted at preserving CBD businesses, and an aggressive attraction strategy for national and global headquarters to locate in Melbourne's CBD.
"Urgent action is critical if Melbourne is going to retain its status as a global city in which high-quality businesses, and high-quality talent want to live, work and invest."
