Members Statement - So Called Roadmap

SO CALLED ROADMAP

Thursday, 17 September 2020

Mr NEWBURY (Brighton):

The State Government’s so called ‘Coronavirus roadmap to reopening’ signs the death warrant for thousands of Victorian businesses and jobs. And it is a sledgehammer to our sanity. Small businesses are being destroyed because the Premier has implemented policy that cuts the private sector off at the knees.

As Paul Zahra, the Chief Executive Officer of the Australian Retailers Association, has said: ‘In its current form, we predict the roadmap measures will mean the permanent loss of up to 50 per cent of Victorian small retail operations that might otherwise survive, leaving … thousands of people unemployed’.

The Chief Executive Officer of Wesfarmers, Rob Scott, said ‘this latest announcement creates more uncertainty and hardship and will inflict a greater personal and economic cost, not just to the people of Melbourne but the whole of Australia’.

And Wes Lambert, the CEO of Restaurant & Catering Australia said, ‘businesses held on believing as long as infection rate was dropping and getting to a manageable level they would be able to open their business in some way from September 14, they feel betrayed’.

The community’s response has been resounding.

Paul wrote: ‘I believe the backlash to his policy will be unprecedented … people are very upset about today’s so-called roadmap’.

Catherine wrote, ‘I am further disappointed and gobsmacked with this decision’.

Another, Sarah, wrote: ‘strongly urge the government to consider the mental health aspect of this trauma on our kids’.

And another, Lucinda, wrote: ‘today, Victoria is devastated, and hope has been cancelled’.

And yet another, Amanda, wrote: ‘the current Victorian government is out of control and needs to be held accountable for their heavy-handed, bullying, manipulative ways’.

Victoria’s economy, businesses, and jobs have been wiped out by a misguided government who does not understand the private sector.