All work in construction throughout Victoria will shut down except for that which relates to essential services or critical infrastructure.

As the state moves to quash the latest coronavirus outbreak, Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews has announced a state-wide five-day lockdown from midnight on Friday night.

As part of this, workers will only be able to leave home to attend job sites if their work is ‘essential work’.

For construction, this means work on:

• essential infrastructure and essential services without which the safety, health or welfare of the community or a section of the community would be endangered or seriously prejudiced (whether provided by a public or private undertaking);
• ​emergency repair workers;
• ​mining, building or construction services for critical infrastructure work, which includes, for the avoidance of doubt, road construction services; and
• a fly in fly out worker or a drive in drive out worker who is required for industry or business continuity and maintenance of a competitive operation where the service is time-critical, who is responsible for critical maintenance or repair of infrastructure critical to a region of, or to, Victoria

Other reasons to leave home include shopping for necessary items, care and care giving, exercise or ‘permitted’ education.

Face coverings must be worn indoors and outdoors when leaving the home whilst

Gathering will not be allowed.

A travel limit of five kilometres will apply for shopping and recreation.

The announcement comes as five new COVID cases have been detected in the state.

In a statement, Andrews said the lockdowns would restrict movement and thus limit the potential spread of COVID.

By going hard early, he said the state would maximise its chances of containing the virus.

“My message to every single Victorian – I know today will be hard. Likely, tomorrow will be even harder,” he said.

“But remember, no one else in the world – anywhere – has achieved what we have.

“And just as we had the courage and conviction to win this war before – we can do it again.”

Master Builders Victoria CEO Rebecca Casson encouraged builders to follow the rules.

“The Building and Construction industry has proven itself to be safe throughout the last 12 months,” Casson said.

“We understand the reasons for the five-day lockdown, but of course we are incredibly disappointed that our industry will need to stop completely for the first time.

“The best everyone can do right now is to follow the Chief Health Officer’s directions, so that our sector is best placed to be ready to go back to worksites after this five-day lockdown.

“In the meantime, Master Builders Victoria will be assisting members over the coming days to work through any issues that this lockdown may cause.”

However, some employer groups slammed the move.

Innes Willox, chief executive officer of Australian Industry Group (Ai Group), says the response is disproportionate and sends the wrong message to business.

Willox said Victoria needed to improve its approach to quarantine, testing and tracing.

“The latest lockdown of Victoria sends the message to industry that this can and will happen at any time, which makes business planning impossible and investment problematic,” Willox said.

“Victoria suffered 111 days of lockdown as a direct result of the State’s failed quarantine system. That experience should have led to the creation of a gold-plated approach to quarantine but instead it has failed again at great cost to the community.

“Victoria’s response looks to be disproportionate to the risk. Thousands of businesses which have struggled to stay open must be thinking that Victorian authorities have no weapon to deal with small COVID outbreaks other than locking their citizens in their homes.

“As has been shown in other states, there is a better way to deal with small outbreaks and that is through better testing and tracing and localised area responses.

“Victoria needs to significantly improve on its approach to quarantine, testing and tracing and avoid the sugar hit of shutting down an entire state and locking up communities that would have virtually zero chance of seeing a single virus case. It is hard to fathom why remote country towns are being treated the same as suburban Melbourne.”

What You Need to Know

Construction industry will shut down except for critical infrastructure without which the safety, health or welfare of the community will be seriously prejudiced.

The whole of Victoria will undergo a 5-day lockdown from 11:59pm tonight until 11:59pm on Wednesday, 17 February.

Stay at home unless:

• ​Shopping for necessary goods and services (one person per household, once per day, a support person can accompany if required)
• Caregiving or compassionate reasons
• Exercise (can leave for two hours of exercise)
• Essential work or permitted education

For the purpose of this 5-day lockdown, essential workers for Victoria’s development, building and construction industry are described as any person who performs work that is essential for the continued operation of:

• essential infrastructure and essential services without which the safety, health or welfare of the community or a section of the community would be endangered or seriously prejudiced (whether provided by a public or private undertaking);
• ​emergency repair workers;
• ​mining, building or construction services for critical infrastructure work, which includes, for the avoidance of doubt, road construction services; and
• a fly in fly out worker or a drive in drive out worker who is required for industry or business continuity and maintenance of a competitive operation where the service is time-critical, who is responsible for critical maintenance or repair of infrastructure critical to a region of, or to, Victoria.

Face coverings must be worn indoors and outdoors except if at home.

Childcare will remain open for all children; school will close for everyone except for children of essential workers and vulnerable children.

Inspections and auction houses will close. Auctions can be online only.

Public and private gatherings not permitted.

Travel limit of 5km from place of primary residence (essential work excluded)

For full details, see the government’s table here.