Thursday, 14 August 2025

Ministers statements: working from home

Jacinta ALLAN (Bendigo East – Premier) (14:11): Working from home is not just great for workers and their families, as good as it is for workers and their families. We also know it is good for businesses in our suburbs, those small and family businesses that are the lifeblood of our suburbs, because we know that when people work from home they spend more time and more money closer to home. What they are doing with that time and money is supporting their great small, local, family-run businesses – the bakeries, the cafes down the road.

This morning, along with the Minister for Small Business and Employment and the member for Preston, we had the opportunity to experience a great local business, Tyler’s Milkbar in Preston, to give them a shout-out, run by sisters Samantha and Alli Fisher. I want to share with the house something that Sam said when she was asked, although clearly she is not working from home – she is in her great small business – about how working from home supports her business. She said:

I can wholeheartedly say that people working from home is why we have succeeded and grown as a business.

When people are working from home, we get a steadier flow of customers … lots more parents coming in, spending time with their kids.

I could not put it better than that. This is proof that flexible work puts money in local communities and keeps small businesses like Tyler’s Milkbar going. It is proof that it supports jobs, supports families and supports communities. As we heard this morning too – and I know the member for Preston is a regular, so he has seen it for himself – this means that Sam and Alli can plan ahead and hire more staff, putting that investment back into their local community.

There are some that do not support this. There are some who want to take it away – some in the federal Liberal Party who had the gall to compare this to apartheid, supported by the member for Brighton of course with his demands around the public service. Only Labor will protect your right to work from home.