[rswail]

There was more than "token" support for small businesses. There was Federal government support for maintaining employment and there were bank and commercial lease supports. In addition, the state government provided loans and direct funding to various industries.

Remember that Australia has not had a financial recession for 25+ years. Recession for any reason causes bankruptcies which leads to those personal impacts.

But the lockdown has meant that our economy will be closer back to "normal" earlier than it would have been. Our primary markets in Asia (in particular China) are all recovering rapidly.

So not sure what your argument is here. Yes, all of the effects you state are correct. However, what was the alternative?

[0xy]

You seem to be missing the point. That support was inefficient because government action still crushed thousands of businesses despite the support available.

Some of these restaurants had $20,000/week expenses and the government was offering significantly less than that in support.

>But the lockdown has meant that our economy will be closer back to "normal" earlier than it would have been

That sounds like wild speculation. Thousands of businesses closed permanently. Sure, giant banks and huge corporations that were specifically bailed out by government will be more-or-less fine. But that family restaurant? They went out of business months ago.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-10/melbourne-second-coro...

But all that is beside the point, which was suicides from lockdown effects will be substantially higher than virus deaths currently, according to Australian Medical Association modelling. I don't think you attempted to refute that with any counter-evidence (beyond your speculation).

[amanaplanacanal]

Likely many of those businesses would have closed anyway, even without the lockdown, just from people avoiding crowded areas because they don’t want to get sick.