Constituency Question - Small Business Devastated

CONSTITUENCY QUESTION

‘SMALL BUSINESS IS DEVASTATED’.

Wednesday, 9 June 2021.

Mr NEWBURY (Brighton) (14:42):

Small businesses across my community are crying out ‘Enough is enough’.

They are the human face of our economy.

They are the mums and dads of our communities.

They are our neighbours who have taken a risk to realise a dream.

They deserve to flourish. Instead many are dying.

Over the last year Labor has released four small business packages.

The truth has been revealed: hardly any businesses were eligible.

Twelve per cent of Victorian small businesses accessed round 1, 16 per cent round 2, 11 per cent round 3, and we know only 13 per cent are eligible for this current round.

I say to Victorian small businesses: don’t you forget who shut you down.

Don’t you forget it was the Premier, whose only life experience is working for the Labor Party, and a gang of Cabinet Ministers, who are all union officials or Labor staffers.

Labor is not a Party of diversity. Its gene pool is either Labor or union.

I ask the Acting Premier: how many of the businesses in my community does this Government anticipate will be shut down?