Masks on, gloves off as federal government turns on Andrews

"We’d be seeing tumbleweeds down Collins St before the year was out. Any longer than a few months and the shutters will be drawn permanently on many businesses."

Tensions between Canberra and the West Australian Labor government are also simmering after the Federal Court, in ruling in favour of the WA government on a border challenge lodged by Clive Palmer, stated that the risk of coronavirus being imported from another state, other than Victoria, was low.

Unwarranted and economically ruinous?

Federal Attorney-General Christian Porter said the statement was "entirely consistent with the Commonwealth’s position that evidence suggests low risk in establishing travel bubbles with bordering states such as South Australia and the Northern Territory which have lower infection rates than WA''.

The Morrison government argues WA's border closures with non-threatening states are unwarranted, economically ruinous and unconstitutional, but was forced to retreat recently in the face of a populist backlash in the west.

With Victoria the prime source of the nation's woes, Prime Minister Scott Morrison, in both the Coalition party room meeting and in Parliament on Tuesday, criticised as "unacceptable'' the Andrews government's quarantine and contact tracing failures that allowed the virus back into the community and enabled it to spread.

He again hailed NSW as the benchmark, saying the state faced the highest risk of any jurisdiction but superior testing and tracing protocols enabled it to keep an outbreak suppressed and its economy open.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said his fellow Victorians could only look to NSW and ask, "Why not us?"

"They look at NSW with a lower number of cases and a lower number of deaths. They look at the fact that in NSW there have been 315,000 jobs created in recent months."

Mr Andrews has little chance of the Parliament granting his request for an extension.

He then turned his guns on Mr Andrews' request for a 12-month extension of the state of emergency that gives the government, health authorities and police extraordinary powers to issue and enforce directives.

"I understand why Victorians are now very concerned by the Victorian government announcing yesterday that it wants to extend the emergency powers for another 12 months,'' Mr Frydenberg said.

"I share those concerns, and the Victorian government has to explain its decision.

"At the end of the day we will do everything to support Victorians get to the other side of this crisis, but the Victorian government has a lot of questions to answer."

Pointedly, Mr Frydenberg told the Coalition party room that the Victorian crisis means the number of workers relying on the JobKeeper wage subsidy would blow out from 3.5 million at the moment to 4 million by September.

Aged care crisis

Federal Labor suggested the attacks on Mr Andrews by Mr Morrison and Mr Frydenberg were to distract from their own failure on aged care.

Mr Morrison said repeatedly the deadly aged care outbreaks were a consequence of the Victorian outbreak. He accused Labor leader Anthony Albanese of having a blind spot on the failures of Mr Andrews.

"The Leader of the Opposition seems to think that everything is OK in Victoria and there have only been challenges in aged care. The Leader of the Opposition has a blind spot on Victoria,'' he said.

In a sign of shifting sentiment in the state, Mr Andrews has little chance of the Parliament granting his request for an extension with the Liberal Opposition and the bulk of the upper house opposed to a 12-month extension.

Mr Andrews, who declined to comment on the attacks from Canberra, insisted the 12-month extension was a common sense "insurance policy".

"We certainly hope that we don't have to draw down on it. We hope that we don't have to make a claim against it," he said.

"These restrictions will be in place for not one day longer than they need to be. Other states are able to extend and extend and extend further. They don't have any limits.

"We would be able to extend the state of emergency in four-week blocks, and there would need to be fresh advice and a fresh case mounted."

But it looks certain that Mr Andrews will need to make concessions to get support for the laws.

The Premier requires at least three of Victoria's twelve upper house crossbench MPs to support the bill when it is introduced next Tuesday and almost all said they would not support the extension in its current form, with calls for a six-month extension at most and greater oversight of the Premier.

The crossbench MPs includes two members from the Hinch Party. Clifford Hayes, Jeff Bourman and Fiona Patten are among those who were clear they did not support the bill, with dumped Labor Minister Adem Somyurek unlikely to support the change either.

"It's impossible to support," Ms Patten told The Australian Financial Review.

Sustainable Australia MP Clifford Haynes said: "While we need rules and regulations to protect our most vulnerable, we also need an element of democracy."

Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MP Jeff Bourman said: "I don't think it's right, not for this length of time."