The Commonwealth Chief Medical Officer’s declaration of Hotspots includes Mildura LGA as of 11:59pm 18 July 2021.
The Prime Minister and Premier of Victoria agreed the Commonwealth would provide income support while the Victorian Government will provide significant business support. Under this arrangement, the Commonwealth will provide income support through the COVID-19 Disaster Payment as follows:
- The Commonwealth Government will provide income support for those who work or live in the areas declared as a Commonwealth Hotspot. The provision of income support outside of these areas will be provided where requested and at the cost of the State or Territory Government.
- Individuals will be eligible for the COVID-19 Disaster Payment if they have lost between 8 and less than 20 hours of work for a payment of $375, and for 20 or more hours of work for a payment of $600, during the period of the lockdown. There will be no liquid assets test applied to eligibility for these payments.
- A commitment has been made by the State or Territory Government to provide significant economic support, for the same lockdown period, to ensure cost sharing between the Commonwealth and the State or Territory Government.
- In addition, the Victorian Government has agreed to provide significant additional economic support to businesses, from day one of this lockdown period, satisfying the Commonwealth’s cost sharing requirements for this arrangement.
The rest of Mallee
- The Victorian Government can provide income support outside a Commonwealth Hotspot, as the NSW Government is.
- This approach has been agreed to in National Cabinet
- This is a matter for the Victorian Government which took the decision to call a state-wide lockdown.
- The Commonwealth is providing additional support to Victorians in Commonwealth declared hotspots during this snap lockdown period, before any further support as part of our new national approach would kick-in for any lockdown beyond 7 days.
- The additional support being announced today comes on top of the $45.4 billion of Commonwealth support that has already been delivered to Victoria.
Commonwealth hotspot declaration – Victoria
Declaring a hotspot for Commonwealth support triggers, if required:
- Provision of PPE from the National Medical Stockpile
- Actions for aged care facilities including PPE, single site workforce supplement and integration of an aged care response centre into the Public Health Emergency Operations Centre
- Assistance with contact tracing
- Asymptomatic testing via General Practice Respiratory Clinics
- Reprioritisation of vaccine supplies
- Access to COVID Disaster Payment, if eligibility criteria is met, including the state imposed lockdown runs for greater than 7 days
- Two new Medicare Benefits Schedule items for longer telehealth consultations have been created that take effect 16 July 2021.