The Federal Treasurer says Victorian schools should be reopened as soon as possible after hearing reports of children as young as 12 being prescribed antidepressants during lockdown.
Josh Frydenberg said while Victoria's progression out of stage 4 lockdowns would benefit businesses, care also needed to be taken to look out for the state's children.
"As a Victorian parent I'm also very focused on my children and other people's children getting back to school," he said.
Under Victoria's new eased restrictions primary school students will be allowed to return to school from October 12.
Students in years 10, 11 and 12 who are completing VCAL or VCE subjects will be allowed to return to complete assessments from October 5 and are allowed back onsite to for classes from October 12 as well.
But Mr Frydenberg said could not see why all students could not return to school.
"Not just for their educational development in the classroom ... but for their wellbeing," he said.
"I've read letters from well-regarded doctors and GPs ... and they speak of the mental health state of young people in Victoria.
"The number of cases they are seeing through their doors [are] skyrocketing, providing antidepressants to kids as young as 12 and 13 as a result of this lockdown."
The Treasurer agreed Victoria needed to follow the medical advice being given to the Government but called on Victorian Premier Dan Andrews to let all children go back to school.
Mr Frydenberg was speaking alongside Prime Minister Scott Morrison who said Victoria had "come along way in a short time" with controlling its outbreak.
Mr Morrison said the easing of the lockdown was a matter for the Victorian government but did point to the fact that it now had a similar number of cases as New South Wales, which does not currently have as severe restrictions in place.
"Obviously as a Federal Government we have sought to work with them to highlight areas where we think we could move more quickly but we do that behind the scenes working in good faith with the Victorian Government," he said.
Mr Morrison said just because the details of those conversations were not public did not mean there had not been communication between the two offices.
"I don't intend to have those discussions in a public setting," he said.
"We want to support the Victorian Government to move forward as safely and quickly as they possibly can."
