Tuesday, 29 October 2024

 Ann-Marie HERMANS (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (12:53): (1181) My question is to the Minister for Agriculture, and I ask: Minister, with the enormous pressure on fruit and vegetable suppliers in my electorate and the perilous cost-of-living crisis in my state, why is the Melbourne Market Authority and the Allan government wanting to destroy the livelihood of wholesalers, retailers and growers in Victoria by doubling the amount of store rent over the next 10 years at the wholesale fruit and vegetable market? This rent increase is unjust and completely unsustainable for most of the growers in my area of the state, and it is unjust for all the producers when it is a fundamental right of all Victorians to have access to fresh fruit and vegetables locally grown.