Victoria

After months of lockdowns and on-site closures, Victoria’s automotive industry has finally been permitted to return to work – hopefully heralding a resurgence for hundreds of businesses left sidelined by the coronavirus. One of the many groups elated over Premier Daniel Andrews' reopening announcement were car dealers, some of whom have been prevented from conducting on-site vehicle viewings, test drives or even office work for up to 112 days.

In good news for Victorian drivers, the state government has relaxed its public health restrictions to allow scheduled or logbook servicing of cars to go ahead. Previously, only emergency repairs, critical maintenance and recall work were permitted to take place during metropolitan Melbourne's ongoing lockdown, but from September 16 onwards any vehicle can be booked in for a routine service.

With increasingly affordable options available and battery sizes and ranges on the rise, electric cars are becoming more of a mainstay in the Australian car industry. We’re past debating the merits of the cars themselves – we know they’re up to the task, and they’re only going to improve – but questions remain about charging them.

Victoria Police will use automatic number plate recognition cameras – fitted to the roof of the latest highway patrol cars – to detect vehicles from postcodes in COVID-19 lockdown. The technology – normally used to detect unregistered vehicles, unlicensed drivers, and cars likely to be driven by wanted persons – is also able to spot vehicles that have left their area.

Fitting a child restraint correctly can mean the difference between life and death in a car crash, and tragically the number of poorly fitted kid seats remains high despite years of education campaigns. Soon, young families in Victoria will have access to free checks of child restraints thanks to a safety program run by Kidsafe and funded by the State Government.