Wednesday, 22 June 2022

 Mr ROWSWELL (Sandringham) (09:58): After two gruelling years of pandemic mismanagement and Labor’s debilitating lockdowns, many Victorian businesses are on the brink of collapse. Now the Fair Work Commission has decided to award a 5.2 per cent increase in the minimum wage. This is a job-killing impost on small businesses. Already employers are facing rising fuel prices, jacking up transport costs; rampant inflation, discouraging consumer spending; an energy crisis; and gradually increasing interest rates. This is exacerbated by supply chain disruption and labour shortages. The 5.2 per cent increase will lead to even higher interest rates and more financial hardship for people with mortgages, credit card debts or personal loans and adds to the substantial risk of unemployment and underemployment. At worst, the most likely result will be many more redundancies.

This will come at an enormous cost to many businesses in my community and right across the state whose profit margins remain so tight that greater employment costs will be simply disastrous. This is particularly the case for the hospitality sector, the many incredible restaurants and cafes in my community who are experiencing a labour crisis as well. Restaurant and Catering Australia told the Fair Work Commission how almost two in three business owners in hospitality underpay themselves to make ends meet, with over 80 per cent of owners working unpaid hours. These are extremely challenging economic times, and the recklessness of both federal and state Labor governments is only making it worse. This 5.2 per cent job-killing impost on small business is simply wrong.