Victorian roadmap leaves south-west construction workers in the dark

The roadmap included specific guidelines for industries like hospitality, personal care and personal training, but nothing on sectors like construction or the arts.

Warrnambool builder Stephen O'Keefe said he was concerned about when restrictions would be lifted.

When regional Victoria emerged from its most recent lockdown on September 10, restrictions remained the same for construction workers.

"That's been challenging," Mr O'Keefe said. "This is all slowing things down."

On Monday, Daniel Andrews said these details would be coming soon. He said various ministers would be "having roundtables" with the different sectors to iron out the details.

Builder Wayne McNaughton said he was still trying to figure out how the roadmap would affect his business.

Mr McNaughton said the problem with the rules was tradesmen were locked out of renovation projects because they were prevented from going inside people's homes.

The rules for construction workers appear to be uniform across the state, with regional Victoria subject to the same restrictions as metropolitan Melbourne. The only difference being regional workers no longer require an authorised worker permit.

On large builds worker numbers are limited to 25 per cent of the normal workforce. On small builds there is a five-worker limit at any one time, excluding the site supervisor.

Home renovations remained a grey area, with guidelines saying a home had to be "completely unoccupied" for non-emergency work to be carried out.

It was unclear whether this meant the residents could still occupy the house when workers were not on site.

With regional travel available to most people in country Victoria, it was also unclear whether a homeowner could have non-emergency repairs performed while they vacationed elsewhere.

The Victorian Department of Health was contacted for comment but didn't respond by deadline.

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