Tuesday, 16 May 2023

 Martin CAMERON (Morwell) (13:17): The spiralling cost-of-living crisis is biting hard in the Latrobe Valley and is now one of the most prevalent concerns for the people in my electorate. Whether it be the ever-increasing price of power, gas, fuel or food, these basic items that we need to keep the family warm, safe and fed are slowly putting more and more stress on the family budget. With school fees, sporting costs and the cost of other social activities also rising and an impending horror state budget on the doorstep, it is no wonder welfare services are experiencing incredibly high demand across the board.

But it does not stop there. Our local small business community are also feeling the strain, with most of the weekly takings being spent on just keeping the doors open. One such shop in Morwell, Claudia’s Cafe, is dealing with massive financial pressures on a daily basis. The cafe has been open for 16 years and survived the Hazelwood mine fire and COVID, but Claudia came to me last week in search of answers. ‘The Andrews government promised it would be working hard to bring down the cost of living, but when will this happen?’ she asked. ‘When can we expect to see some relief from the crushing financial strain?’ In fact they are now starting to see the exact opposite happening: prices are going up. They all want to know: when will the prices start going down?