• Prime Minister Scott Morrison has slammed the door on further federal emergency funding for Victoria, as the state navigates another COVID-19 lockdown.
• Victoria has already received $45 million in direct Commonwealth support through the pandemic, Morrison told reporters on Sunday.
  
• Earlier, Acting Premier James Merlino, who announced a $250.7 million Victorian Government funding boost, called Canberra’s response “disgraceful”.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has effectively ruled out new financial support for the state of Victoria, which is estimated to lose between $700 million and $1 billion in economic activity over the course of its snap seven-day COVID-19 lockdown.

Speaking in Queenstown, New Zealand, Morrison yesterday batted down comments from Victoria’s Acting Premier James Merlino, criticised the Federal Government for not stepping in with emergency funding measures.

After announcing a $250.7 million Victorian Government support package, designed to keep hard-hit businesses afloat during the shutdown, Merlino said the state’s plea for assistance was met with an “unrelenting” refusal.

Canberra’s response to the situation was “disgraceful”, Merlino added.

Unlike the extended lockdowns of 2020, and the short state-wide lockdown in February, Victorians were plunged into lockdown on Thursday without the backing of the JobKeeper wage subsidy or the elevated JobSeeker Coronavirus Supplement.

Industry groups and unions fear the lockdown could be devastating for small businesses and casual workers who are suddenly without an income.

Responding to Merlino’s critique, Morrison pointed to the $45 billion in taxpayer funding which he said has already been funneled to Victoria over the course of the pandemic — much of which came in the now-defunct JobKeeper and JobSeeker Coronavirus Supplement payments.

“And we will continue to support Victoria through the pandemic leave payment, through the emergency cash assistance, through the social security system supported by JobSeeker,” Morrison said.

Morrison also turned to the examples of Queensland and Western Australia, which navigated their own lockdowns in 2021 without making such direct pleas for Commonwealth support.

Eliding the fact both lockdowns were much shorter and focused on individual cities, not an entire state, Morrison said Western Australia and Queensland “took on those responsibilities, and I commend them for that.”

Morrison’s viewpoint was backed by Federal Treasurer Josh Frydenberg, who took to Facebook on Sunday to dismiss suggestions that Canberra’s chequebook has closed entirely.

“The amount of federal government direct economic support delivered to Victoria is around three times what has been delivered by the state government,” Frydenberg said.

Outlining the hardline rationale behind the decision, outspoken Nationals MP Barnaby Joyce on Monday claimed that excess debt caused by emergency spending will eventually become “a problem as bad as COVID”.

“We ultimately get to the point where we can’t keep putting things on the credit card,’ Joyce told “Sunrise” on Monday morning. “This is the stark reality. We have to make sure that we learn to work with the fact that there is a virus in the community, and try to minimise the spread.”

Victoria has entered its fourth day of lockdown, which has shuttered non-essential businesses and given residents only five reasons to leave the home.

Industry groups estimate the snap shutdown, designed to slow the spread of a new COVID-19 outbreak within the overwhelmingly unvaccinated community, could cost up to $1 billion in lost trade alone.

The Victorian Government has not confirmed if the lockdown will end at 11.59pm Thursday, June 3, as originally suggested.

As the state waits for confirmation, equal focus rests on the rising case numbers: On Monday, Victorian health authorities confirmed five new COVID-19 cases within the community, bringing the current cluster to 45 people.

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