Thursday, 10 March 2022

Southern Metropolitan Region

Ms CROZIER (Southern Metropolitan) (12:44): (1688) My matter is to the Minister for Small Business, and it relates to concerns around the vaccination status of single mothers. The government made an announcement this week that they want to provide businesses with an incentive of $20 000 to employ single mothers. My office had a call from a business in Hawthorn yesterday, a fashion boutique. They stated that they had found the perfect candidate—a 48-year-old single mother—but unfortunately because of her vaccination status they could not employ her. In fact the business owner said the fine she would get for employing this woman would be greater than the incentive from the government. The question I ask of the minister is: can he advocate on behalf of many small businesses to the Premier and the Minister for Health regarding single mothers who are not fully vaccinated or are unvaccinated who desperately need to work?