Plumbers, electricians and alarm installation services will be permitted to operate where they are providing essential or urgent support to a permitted service or industry or where required to maintain the health and safety of Victorians at home or at work. Works needed to secure and make safe construction sites will also be allowed.
The new classifications also orders the majority of the state’s retailers to bring the shutters down with car dealerships, furniture stores, retail hardware stores, electrical goods stores, department stores, florists, clothing stores, antique stores, food courts, auction houses and sex shops to close.
Retailers allowed to remain open include supermarkets, grocery shops, service stations, pharmacists, post offices, drive-through agricultural retailers and hardware stores that cater to permitted services or industries.
A number of wholesale businesses are also in the bracket of businesses to be closed including motor vehicle sales, motor vehicle parts retailers, furniture, floor covering and other homeware wholesalers. Wholesalers that can remain open include grocery, liquor and tobacco businesses and wholesalers of cereal grains.
Under the new restrictions, businesses wanting to continue operating would need to seek a special exemption from Victoria’s chief health officer.
Some critical manufacturers and logistics operators will be given a reprieve, with meat, seafood and diary producers, as well as fruit and vegetable sellers allowed to continue trading.
Critical manufacturing, repair and maintenance services could also seek exemptions to ensure the continued operation of permitted industries.
Manufacturers of goods that would, if not exempted, otherwise permanently close and create major supply chain gaps or be critical to global supply chains in the local and international manufacture of essential products overseas, such as medical equipment and supplies, will also be exempted.
So will businesses trading as sole operators.
Mining support services and exploration in Victoria will also be required to close with exemptions for coal, oil, gas, metal ore, petroleum, non-metallic mineral mining and quarrying.
For the financial services industry, only retail banking and the provision of banking services to those unable to access online services will be permitted. Financing, investing, insurance funds, superannuation funds and auxiliary finance and insurance services will be forced to close.
It is understood the finance industry was seeking greater clarity from the Victorian State Government on its interpretation of retail banking and the provision of retail banking services, after a similar ban in New Zealand saw some contractors such as security staff who oversee the maintenance of ATMs stopped at road blocks.
In the telecommunications and media sector book publishers, directory businesses, mailing list and software publishers are required to close while telecommunication services, newspaper production, radio and television broadcasting will be allowed to continue.
Professional services including architectural, enginnering, legal, accounting, advertising, market research and management consulting businesses will also be ordered to close with scientific researceh services the only carve-out for white collar workers.
Employment services, travel agencies, document preperation services, credit reporting and debt collection services are being slated for closure while building cleaning, pest control, and related services are able to continue unaffected.
