Victoria returns to the rustbelt under Daniel Andrews

Dig into the detail of today’s unemployment figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics and one figure leaps out; one figure that shows how Daniel Andrews catastrophic coronavirus management has returned Victoria to the rustbelt status Jeff Kennett saved it from back in the nineties.

The participation rate — the number of people either in work or looking for work — is a mere 65 per cent, below the national average. The only states and territories with worse outcomes are the rustbelt perennials, South Australia and Victoria. And that’s after an improvement. The Victorian participation rate increased 2.0 percentage points last month, although it remains 1.4 percentage points below March.

So what does this mean?…