Tuesday, 17 March 2020

COVID-19

Ms RYAN (Euroa) (19:02): (2051) My adjournment this evening is for the Premier, and the action I am seeking is that he provide an urgent stimulus to support businesses across my electorate in the face of the immense crisis that is currently facing us. Every state in Australia except Victoria has provided, or is actively putting together, a package of assistance to help businesses, seniors and households in the face of this pandemic. We all know this is going to have a major impact on small businesses across my electorate, from those which are dependent on tourism to the retail sector to cafes, hairdressers and those who are dependent on trade or who are exposed to trade.

I do not think we can afford to adopt a wait-and-see approach. Retailers in Benalla have already told me that they had a bad Christmas, and now that they are facing the very unknown consequences of coronavirus it is a frightening prospect for them. One small business owner who I spoke to today had a $30 000 order cancelled today, and that is being replicated in businesses right across the electorate.

The impact of event cancellations of course is also incredibly serious, and it is biting very deeply. We have had the Wall to Wall Festival cancelled, along with the Benalla Shorts film festival, the Thoona Wheelie Bin Championships, the Euroa rodeo, GoFish Nagambie, the Kilmore Art Expo and races of course—the list goes on and on.

I would like to take this opportunity to personally thank and congratulate those volunteers who put so much time and effort into organising those events and who have had to make the very challenging decision to cancel them to help do their bit to contain COVID-19. There is an enormous amount of work and time and money that goes into planning those events to make our region the very wonderful place that it is to live and work. I want the government to realise how important those events are not just in drawing people to our region but also in many cases they are the main fundraising event for not-for-profit groups or for charities across my region.

I would also ask the Premier to urgently examine what measures can be put in place to stop panic buying. There are I think a lot of mixed messages from government and from the media at the moment, which have fuelled panic and led to supermarket shelves being stripped bare. But today I have had reports of busloads of people coming from Melbourne or from outside our area, stripping the supermarkets and moving on. I am very deeply worried about where that leaves people, particularly those who can only afford to buy their groceries from week to week.