Ballarat small business support
Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (12:31): My question is for the Minister for Small Business, and this is about local businesses. Minister, small traders in Ballarat are demoralised and facing ruin due to the 10-month-long closure of their frontages on busy Albert Street. They were informed in January that works would commence in February and continue until at least November. Businesses including a car wash, bakery, cafe and bottle shop are losing thousands of dollars of revenue each week, in many cases more than 50 per cent of their normal takings. Curbside Cafe owner Tracey Nunn’s income is down 75 per cent. She told me COVID was better than this. Minister, what action will you take to ensure proper, reasonable support is available to these small businesses so severely impacted by this government-sponsored project?
Ms PULFORD (Western Victoria—Minister for Employment, Minister for Innovation, Medical Research and the Digital Economy, Minister for Small Business, Minister for Resources) (12:32): You guys have really got the full rockstar show on today, haven’t you? I can actually answer this basically because I was the roads minister when we funded this project and it was an election commitment and I live in Ballarat and I drive past these shops all the time, so I am familiar with the works that are underway. The Keeping Ballarat Moving project, a series of six projects, was a commitment made by my predecessor in the roads portfolio, Luke Donnellan, another fabulous local member, and that is what Mrs McArthur is speaking about. Because the coalition, the Liberals—with apologies, Ms Bath, as the Nats have not had quite so bad a week actually—never really built anything, and certainly did not build anything in Ballarat, there is not a lot of depth of experience about how this works. The way that transport projects—
Members interjecting.
Ms PULFORD: With your forbearance, President, but I am representing the minister for roads in this chamber, the way that disruptions are managed by our various roads authorities and the Department of Transport in the delivery of projects that are about improving amenity and safety is that they do engage with small businesses to provide them with notice and signage and support to minimise the impact of construction works. We are known in this government for the Big Build. There is some disruption, and the transport ministers frequently are advising people, businesses and trading strips about the impact of those.
But I do want to pick up Mrs McArthur’s point about ‘worse than COVID’. Can I just take the opportunity to thank these small businesses, as I do all small businesses when I meet them all the time, for the extraordinary effort that they have made, whether it be ensuring that their staff and patrons are vaccinated or ensuring that they are operating COVID safe and that they have their COVID-safe plans, because those people have saved thousands and thousands of lives in Victoria, undeniably, as a result of their sacrifice.
This is a really exciting improvement for Sebastopol. It will be better. It will be disruptive. What I can do is I can ask the minister for roads perhaps to ask the regional roads director if he would meet with these traders to make sure that they have all of the information that they need about the progress of works and the disruption and any other things that can be done around signage and the like to assist them while those improvements are being made right out the front of their shops.
Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (12:35): Minister, support is currently being denied because some access is theoretically possible via a backstreet entry obscured by signage and machinery. This 10-month closure of the busy frontage is already severely impacting trade. Yes, they did everything to stay open during COVID; now they are at their absolute last chance of ever surviving. And I am told also that the member for Buninyong has failed to respond to pleas from these distressed owners. So how many businesses need to go bankrupt before your government accepts that the impact is severe enough to warrant your financial support?
Ms PULFORD (Western Victoria—Minister for Employment, Minister for Innovation, Medical Research and the Digital Economy, Minister for Small Business, Minister for Resources) (12:35): You are talking about compensation for a road project, right, so we are well outside of my portfolio remit here. In terms of—
Mrs McArthur interjected.
Ms PULFORD: I know you guys never build anything or do anything, which is why you had such a bad weekend, but the project is being delivered through the roads portfolio, and because we build stuff all the time our agencies are well practised at engaging with local traders. These local traders have not sought a meeting with me, and I would be happy to speak with them in my capacity both as their small business minister and as their local upper house member. They have not sought to do that. Michaela Settle has been and continues to be an outstanding representative for businesses in Sebas and has delivered significant projects and funding to that particular strip and those particular streets.