Wednesday, 2 April 2025

 Emma KEALY (Lowan) (09:59): My question is to the Premier. When will the $5000 business bushfire recovery fund open? This was announced back on 11 March. It is nearly a month later and businesses in the Grampians region still cannot apply for that fund. This is after the Victorian government did not go in to bat for Victorian businesses with the federal government. The disaster recovery fund has been established for this exact purpose. We saw in Queensland and New South Wales, those states impacted by Tropical Cyclone Alfred, $50,000 available to businesses within days, whereas in Victoria Jacinta Allan is nowhere to be seen. She has not set foot on the fireground, and she has not fought for Victorians in their time of need. I note today the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences report saying that farmland in Victoria has decreased and yet we are seeing the government providing more and more land taxes, pushing our farmers out of business and pushing up the cost of food grown in Victoria.

Last week I was speaking to farmers in the Willaura region, and they are actively looking at property and land in South Australia because it has become too difficult to make money in Victoria. If we look at grocery prices in Victoria, they have gone up by 30 per cent over the past six years. If we look at food prices overall, they have gone up by more than 17 per cent over the past few years. Labor cannot manage money, and it is Victorians that are paying the price.