Australia Covid live update: Victoria reports one local coronavirus case; Sydney lockdown to be extended

No, it wasn’t because during the Victorian lockdown without request the federal government was providing a billion dollars every week.

In the recent lockdown, which thankfully only went for two weeks, Victoria got exactly the same as what NSW got for those two weeks. NSW is going into week four of a lockdown and that means the challenges are escalating.

What I announced yesterday is exactly what every other state and territory would get in a week four of a lockdown. Frankly, people want to see governments working together. The Victorian government has been strongly supported by the commonwealth, particularly last year during those terrible lockdowns, and I have no doubt that people in Melbourne and across Victoria just want to ensure that Sydney can get through this and that they don’t have to look at a lockdown that was so devastating that we saw in Victoria …

We have to fix the problem and when Victoria needed the commonwealth we were there. And when NSW needed the commonwealth, we’re here again. And we’ll continue to be there, particularly those payments that start this Friday.

You can already get a $500 and $325 payment now. There’s been 130,000 claims that are already getting those payments. From this Friday, for those first LGAs, $600 if you’ve lost more than 20 hours, 375 for between eight and 20 hours, 375 for between eight and 20 hours a week. For the rest of NSW that’s available from Monday.