Wednesday, 15 September 2021

 Ms LOVELL (Northern Victoria) (13:59): (1506) My adjournment is for the Premier, and it concerns the recently announced trading restrictions placed on regional Victorian hospitality venues. The action that I seek from the Premier is for him to immediately reconsider his mandated patron limit of 10 patrons inside and 20 patrons outside at a hospitality venue in regional Victoria that came into effect last Thursday night and to increase the patron limits of these venues so that traders can actually exceed their operating costs and record a profit.

The Andrews Labor government continues to have lockdown as the first option mantra when dealing with the current outbreak of COVID-19. On 21 August the Premier gave country Victorians less than 3 hours notice of the lockdown of the entirety of regional Victoria, in line with metropolitan Melbourne, to combat the COVID outbreak in Shepparton. With the Shepparton outbreak brought under control, thanks to our wonderful local effort by our local health services and wider community, the lockdown in regional Victoria, excluding Greater Shepparton, was lifted at 11.59 last Thursday night and will be lifted in Shepparton from 11.59 tonight.

As a leader completely devoid of any plan to help Victoria’s recovery from the pandemic, the Premier’s announcement was seen as a very dim light at the end of a never-ending tunnel. Unfortunately the devil is always in the detail with Daniel Andrews, and the prohibitive restrictions on hospitality businesses, all of whom have done it so tough for the last 18 months, were no consolation whatsoever. Regional Victorian restaurants, cafes, hotels and clubs are limited to just 10 patrons inside and 20 patrons outside at any one time, irrespective of the size of their venue or the number of different areas or rooms in the venue. This ridiculous limit makes it a waste of time for most hospitality businesses to open, with owners being unable to meet the cost of staff wages, stock and utilities.

What is most galling for these small business operators is what they see when they look north to New South Wales. For my electorate, the border with New South Wales is right on the edge. In New South Wales, hospitality businesses can open without a customer cap, with traders complying with density limits of one person per 4 square metres inside and one person per 2 square metres outside. This is a more fair and equitable system, which would help struggling hospitality businesses right across regional Victoria and particularly in the twin border towns in my electorate, where the frustration of the harsh Victorian restrictions is in such contrast to those we see just a few hundred metres away across the border but still part of what locals consider to be one community. It would also help Victorian businesses to retain staff, as many of their employees are leaving to work in New South Wales as jobs there are seen to be far more stable, as they are not subject to regular and prolonged lockdowns. I call on the Premier to adopt the same density rules as in New South Wales for regional Victoria.