Wednesday, 2 April 2025

 John LISTER (Werribee) (19:03): (1102) My adjournment matter this evening is for the Minister for Small Business and Employment, and the action I seek is for the minister to join me in Werribee for a small business forum. Small businesses make up a high proportion of the business community in the suburbs of my electorate, whether it be hairdressers or barbers, cafes and restaurants and even small boutique shops. As a Werribee local I utilise many of these services myself.

Last week I took the opportunity to venture down Watton Street in Werribee to introduce myself to shop owners and staff and drop off some information about the various Victorian government services and support available for small business. Some of these services include payroll tax changes or our Small Business Bus service and consulting. It was great to speak to business owners like the owner of the Park Hotel or the family running the Vietnamese restaurant not far from my electorate office and talk to them about these different initiatives. They make our shopping strips in Wyndham vibrant, serve a wide variety of needs and represent our diverse community.

The minister was also out at my electorate last week to meet with the Committee for Wyndham, and I hear it was a successful meeting, with the member for Tarneit and the member for Laverton joining her. I invite her to swing by Werribee again in the near future to host a small business forum with me. The forum will bring together folks from Werribee, Wyndham Vale and Manor Lakes, from established areas and our newer estates, and I thank our small businesses for all the work they do in Werribee and surrounding suburbs.

I would also like to reflect on something that we have noticed too in a lot of our new suburbs, which is something that I will be working closely with the minister on; that is looking at how we support our people working from home and running businesses from home in our new estates. It is increasingly becoming a trend in areas like Wyndham. I think it is really important that we provide those same services that we would for bricks and mortar to people who are working from home and running those businesses from home, because we know that they are really important not just for economic growth but also really important for making it easier for perhaps women or people who are not necessarily able to commute to be able to run their own businesses and have that extra income. I look forward to welcoming the minister to my electorate to have this small business forum, and in concluding I would also like to reiterate my thanks for small businesses for all the hard work they do in my community.