Ann: FY21 interim results presentation, page-6

It may be - hard to assess - but some delusional comments from the CEO today, who seems blind to how many with medical qualifications have criticised Daniel Andrews' shockingly poor handling of coronavirus in Victoria.

Does this CEO realise that we've had 820 deaths in Victoria compared to just 89 in all the other states and territories of Australia combined?

If I was him I'd be praising Gladys Berejiklian's handling of COVID-19 as it's NSW that's had by far the most overseas arrivals in quarantine, whereas Victoria has lagged by a huge margin and yet even with that in Melbourne we've had three lockdowns, the most recent of which ends at 2359 hours AEDT tonight.

Taiwan is 'world leading', and other nations like South Korea not far behind.

In Australia, NSW leads all the states by a country mile. The eceonomy's largely been kept open and people (with limited exceptions such as for a time around Sydney's Northern Beaches) haven't lost their social freedoms.

Businesses are collapsing or will collapse in Victoria, the number on JobKeeper in Victoria hasn't decreased as fast as in other states, the economic laggard of Australia, yet this CEO ignores that even though the evidence stares him in the face.

Is there some secret deal with the Victorian Labor Government coming up?

Irrespective, I won't be investing in this company. Chaddy is off my visiting list!

From 'The Australian' today:

'Vicinity Centres, the co-owner of Melbourne’s landmark Chadstone shopping centre, has praised the Victorian government’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, calling the public health response “world-leading”.

Vicinity chief executive Grant Kelley said evolution of the response by governments across Australia had led to an “enormous” bump in consumer confidence, which had driven visits to its suburban centres and malls outside Victoria back to about 90 per cent of pre-crisis levels by the end of January.

“So there is a recovery of stores occurring, which we are grateful to public health advisers and government for engineering, which they clearly have,” Mr Kelley said.

On a call with investors as the company delivered a $394.1m first-half loss, he thanked the Andrews government for its handling of the state’s latest five-day lockdown.

“I always say to people who complain about the lockdown; it’s cause and effect … [opponents] are ignoring the very fundamental point that what’s causing that from the public health domain is probably world leading health advice, and then governments moving swiftly and then Australians, frankly, everyone’s doing their bit,” Mr Kelley said.

Most of Vicinity’s Melbourne retailers were also mandated to close in the city’s lockdowns last year and its CBD centres are still being hit by the slow return of office workers and limited tourism due to border closures. But Vicinity had two consecutive quarters of positive sales growth outside CBDs and Victoria...'