Wednesday, 4 March 2026

 Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (11:07): I move:

That this house:

(1)   notes that:

(a) small businesses across Victoria face escalating pressures including rising taxes, soaring energy costs, regulatory burden and increasing retail theft in shopping strips and town centres;

(b) the Business Council of Australia’s Regulation Rumble 2025 again ranks Victoria last in the nation for cost and regulatory burden, while nearly 40 per cent of surveyed regional business have experienced their worst performance in history over the last six months according to Victorian Regional Chamber Alliance’s business health survey report October 2025;

(c) the Allan Labor government has now confirmed it will spend approximately $40 million of taxpayers money defending a class action brought by around 16,000 small businesses;

(d) the government has reportedly paid approximately $2.8 million to a California-based economist, engaged at rates of about $US950 per hour, to argue that affected businesses should have insured themselves against pandemic losses, that compensation would create a ‘moral hazard’, and that lockdowns were economically beneficial for many traders, a proposition widely regarded by small business owners as bizarre, insulting and dismissive of their experience;

(e) small and medium businesses are the backbone of communities across metropolitan and regional Victoria and employ the overwhelming majority of Victorians;

(2)   expresses its regret that, at a time of mounting pressure on small enterprises, the government has prioritised significant non-Victorian legal and consultancy expenditure over practical support; and

(3)   calls on the government to restore conditions in which small businesses can operate with confidence, fairness and security.

I rise to speak on the motion that I am moving in relation to small business, motion 1303 on the notice paper. It refers to small businesses across Victoria facing escalating pressures, including rising taxes, soaring energy costs, regulatory burden and increasing retail theft in shopping strips and town centres. I move this motion because the situation facing small businesses across Victoria has become very serious. It is more than a cyclical downturn. It looks worryingly like a structural crisis, and it is driven in large part by the policy settings of this state Labor government. The evidence is varied, anecdotal and statistical, but taken together it is conclusive.

First of all, some independent assessments. For the second consecutive year the Business Council of Australia’s Regulation Rumble 2025 report ranked Victoria dead last in Australia for overall cost and regulatory burden – not middle of the road or second last but absolutely the worst. Victoria is ranked last for property taxes and charges, last for licensing requirements and last for payroll tax. This is the independent assessment of Australia’s peak business organisation. CPA Australia agrees. Elinor Kasapidis, their chief of policy, said:

Regrettably, Victoria is seen by most small and large businesses as the least attractive Australian state or territory in which to invest because of its high taxes and reputation for over-regulation …

That is the professional assessment of a respected accounting body. The NAB regulatory impact analysis says the same thing. The ratings agencies are sounding alarm bells. Even the Reserve Bank warns that excessive government regulation crowds out private investment and destroys productivity.

Everyone who matters says similar – everyone except this government. The tax environment actively penalises growth. Victoria operates one of the lowest default payroll tax thresholds in Australia. Payroll tax applies when combined wages reach $1 million. Most other jurisdictions offer higher thresholds, ranging from $1.2 million in New South Wales to $2.5 million in the Northern Territory. On top of that base, larger businesses face the mental health and wellbeing surcharge and the COVID-19 debt temporary payroll tax surcharge, costs that still contribute to Victoria’s overall reputation for high business taxation. Even small businesses are hit by land tax, the Emergency Services and Volunteers Fund levy, rising energy prices and soaring WorkCover premiums, including businesses that have never made a claim. The compounding effect is devastating. Just last week I was sent by constituents a letter which Bonney Energy, a bulk fuel supplier, have had to send to their Victorian customers, announcing a freight cost increase effective 1 March. The letter lists the reasons: driver wage increases, government and statutory cost increases, rising operating and compliance costs and increased toll charges associated with the West Gate Tunnel project. I did not have to dredge that letter up from the archive. It came this week. It is the kind of letter I get all the time, and every one of those dot points traces back to a government decision. That 25 cents per litre lands on every small business that relies on fuel deliveries, and those businesses then absorb it or pass it on to customers who are already cutting back.

At the national level the data is grim. A November 2025 MYOB study found that 80 per cent of surveyed small to medium enterprises reported revenue had decreased or remained stagnant. The Council of Small Business Organisations Australia reports that 64 per cent of small businesses recorded lower profits over the past year, that 60 per cent were at times unable to pay themselves a wage and that almost half considered closing or exiting in the next 12 months. The Australian Securities and Investments Commission reports that 14,722 companies entered external administration in 2024–25, up 33 per cent on the prior year. The ATO’s collectable debt stock has swollen to $52.8 billion, a record high, and two-thirds is owed by small business. The Small Business Debt Helpline reports a 21 per cent increase in cases, with a median debt of around $70,000.

Closer to home, the regional Victoria story is even more troubling. The Victorian Regional Chamber Alliance’s business health survey, chaired by Jodie Gillett of Commerce Ballarat, found that just under 40 per cent of respondents said their performance in the last six months was the worst in living memory. One business said:

We are planning to close and sell the land within 12 months and leave Victoria.

Another said:

Some weeks a wage is taken, other weeks a wage simply can’t be taken.

And another:

We take home $100 each plus … rent …

Others spoke of drawing on savings to make it through and said:

Having to deal with owing money and stress is at an all time high.

One submission was short but clear:

The increase in taxes in all areas has just destroyed all profits.

These are not isolated complaints. They are voices of an entire sector in distress, and the compliance burden compounds the financial pressure.

Council of Small Business Organisations Australia chief executive Skye Cappuccio notes that small business owners are already spending almost a day a week on regulatory paperwork.

The Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s small business conditions survey found that more than 49 per cent of respondents cited government regulation as significantly affecting their business. A separate survey found 61 per cent of small businesses spend over $20,000 annually just on compliance. We also know that capital is leaving Victoria. Business groups, including the Property Council, have reported that a retail investor recently withdrew significant capital from the state, citing the policy and regulatory environment. When businesses and investors are actively choosing Queensland or South Australia over Victoria on this scale, it is a damning verdict on this government’s choices.

When I spoke last sitting week in the tributes to Alan Scanlan I did not want to be too political, but in researching that contribution I came across a quote which really shows how far our state has fallen. In his maiden speech in 1961 he observed:

We, in Victoria, are most conscious of the fact that 50 per cent of the capital which has been attracted to the Commonwealth has been drawn to this State, and this has meant the establishment of new industries and the extension of existent ones. Our population is continually increasing, and Victoria has established itself as the political, cultural and economic leader of the Commonwealth.

Nobody could seriously make a similar argument about our economy now, and responsibility for that lies squarely with this anti-business Labor government, or rather this anti–small and medium business Labor government. They might be happy with big unions and big business, but anyone else is crowded out by procurement rules and complex, expensive and time-consuming tendering processes, as well as diversity quotas, all of which only the largest businesses can begin to navigate.

On the topic of the Big Build and big corruption: poorly managed state infrastructure. Just one example of this is something I raised in this place recently. The Big Build’s Pakenham roads upgrade has seen prolonged road closures on Bald Hill Road devastate local traders. Pakenham Bulk Foods suffered an 80 per cent collapse in sales. The owner struggled to find the rent, and the council was still pursuing her for rates. Over a thousand people signed a petition demanding government assistance. These are not big corporations with deep pockets. They are mum-and-dad businesses, and the government is destroying their livelihoods without so much as a conversation.

Then there is the retail crime epidemic. Figures from the Crime Statistics Agency show total recorded offences have surged 15.7 per cent, the highest level since reporting began. Retail theft is up 47 per cent to 18,644 alleged offender incidents. In my electorate in Geelong thefts soared from 5530 cases to 7281 in a single year, and nearly half of all crimes remain unsolved. The human stories behind those statistics are shocking. Just this week we learned that Squires Loft restaurant in Geelong West has been broken into three times in less than two years, including an incident where thieves stole a 100-kilogram safe containing thousands of dollars. Nearby Model Citizen Beauty was targeted four times in a matter of months, forcing the owner to lock the doors while inside the salon just to operate safely. She described the area as ‘the Wild West’. When I visited Geelong a few months ago with our then Shadow Minister for Police David Southwick, local traders told us almost despairingly that they do not even bother reporting theft anymore. There is just no point. This is the broken windows theory in action: when low-level crime is ignored, police are under-resourced and offenders face no consequences, decline accelerates. The only business apparently booming in parts of Geelong is the one installing security grilles.

I want to turn now to another example of this government’s extraordinary treatment of small business – the COVID-19 class action. It has emerged in recent days through reporting in the Age and through the commencement of court proceedings just how much this government is prepared to spend fighting the very businesses it harmed. Over 16,000 businesses have joined a class action seeking damages for the financial devastation caused by the 112-day lockdown in 2020 – a lockdown entirely seeded by the state’s failed quarantine program, which killed 768 people. Rather than support the traders it harmed, the Allan Labor government has confirmed it will spend approximately $40 million of taxpayers money to aggressively defend the case in a 12-week Supreme Court trial beginning on 10 March.

That alone is troubling enough, but the nature of the defence they are offering is what is truly offensive. The government has engaged a California-based economist, Christopher Pleatsikas, at a rate of approximately $1400 an hour, for about 2000 hours of work. That is an estimated $2.8 million of Victorian taxpayer money sent to a single consultant in California. And what does $2.8 million buy? Pleatsikas argued that compensating businesses for the lockdown would create a moral hazard because businesses should have acquired private pandemic insurance or developed their own risk mitigation strategies after the first lockdowns. He went further, arguing the pandemic was actually economically beneficial for many traders due to post-lockdown upswings – actually beneficial for many traders. I cannot imagine what it must feel like for a small business owner who lost everything to read that. Damian Scattini, the principal solicitor acting for the 16,000 businesses, is quoted as refuting this argument:

If any business rang their insurance broker in 2020 and said, ‘I anticipate there might be a pandemic. I’d like to have insurance coverage’, the broker would have said that was excluded.

Pandemic insurance was simply unavailable. Scattini rightly asked:

Why spend so much money running spurious arguments like no one lost money, and it’s a moral hazard to compensate people? Why not just do the right thing?

Caterina Borsato, a hospitality business owner and one of the plaintiffs, is in the same situation as thousands of others. She said:

Small business is not equipped to deal with these sorts of things – they are often mum-and-dad businesses …

…

If this so-called expert thinks it is that easy, it is not ... Nobody understood the magnitude of this.

The proposition that Victorian mum and dad businesses should have outplanned the state government’s own pandemic response and that compensating them for a government-seeded lockdown is a moral hazard is widely regarded by small business owners as bizarre, insulting and dismissive of their experience. The government is paying $2.8 million to a Californian consultant to argue this, while simultaneously telling Victorian businesses to tighten their belts. This goes to the heart of why things are so bad. Labor, by and large, have never run a business, do not understand business and fundamentally do not trust business. There is a profound misunderstanding on the left that imagines national and international corporations are typical of business. They are not. Seventy per cent of businesses in Australia which employ any staff employ fewer than five people. In Western Victoria 95 per cent employ fewer than 20. From some slightly dated but I am sure still representative figures, of the 27,574 businesses in my electorate, just 38, that is 0.14 per cent, employ more than 200 people – just 0.14 per cent.

Despite this, so much legislation treats all employers alike, as if every small business has an HR department, a legal team and deep cash reserves. They do not – I can tell you they do not. You cannot have workers rights without workers. You cannot protect employees if there are no employers willing to take the risk of keeping the doors open. Every business that closes, every business that moves interstate, every business that decides Victoria is too hard equals jobs lost and families without income.

This motion calls on the government to restore conditions in which businesses can operate with confidence, fairness and security. That means cutting red and green tape, not adding to it. It means competitive tax settings, not the worst in the nation; i means adequately resourcing police to tackle crime; it means properly supporting business disrupted by state infrastructure projects; and it means having the basic decency not to spend $40 million of taxpayers money, including nearly $3 million to a Californian consultant, insulting the very businesses the government’s own failures have harmed. I commend the motion to the house and urge everybody on the crossbench to stand up for the small businesses of Victoria, the people who employ the vast majority of workers in the state, and I call on this government to listen to them, understand them and support this motion.

 Jacinta ERMACORA (Western Victoria) (11:27): I would like to thank those opposite and Mrs McArthur for the opportunity to once again talk about the economic performance of our great state, the wonderful supports the Allan government provides to small business in this state and particularly the vital role of small businesses in keeping our economy thriving, providing employment and delivering goods and services, particularly in rural and regional areas, where they truly are the centre of our communities, and to provide them with a little bit of education about the real metrics of performance. I note that this time it is Mrs McArthur that is giving me this opportunity; what a nice change. It is usually Mr Davis who repeats the same tired lines, running down our state. Perhaps some of the education finally sank in. It is a shame Mrs McArthur did not meet with the experts on small business on her recent trip to Europe funded by Victorian taxpayers, and what a shame that she could only fit in three days of meetings in her month-long trip. That is a disappointment. She might perhaps have had some time to learn about how to support small businesses. Never mind. We are here to help.

Let us look at some of the facts, not the cherrypicking nonsense trotted out by those opposite. In the latest data on jobs – I know you are allergic to data over there – and unemployment just out today, across Victoria 4000 new jobs were created in January, powering continued growth across the state. The Victorian unemployment rate dropped by 0.3 of a percentage point to just 4.2 per cent. Wages are growing too. Over the last year Victorian wages grew by 3.3 per cent, well above the average over the decade.

Regional Victoria is leading the nation with an impressive regional unemployment rate of 3.7 per cent, equal best with Western Australia, and may I say again that 2.8 per cent is the figure for unemployment in my home city of Warrnambool. Regional unemployment has fallen by a remarkable 2.4 percentage points since 2014, showing long-term sustained improvement. Something must be going right. 59,900 jobs have been created in regional Victoria in the past five years. Employment in regional Victoria has increased by 139,900. That is 21 per cent since November 2014.

That does not sound like a poorly performing economy to me. Victoria has added more than 123,000 businesses since June, and that is the net figure – almost a 20 per cent increase, the most of any other state or territory.

Bev McArthur interjected.

Jacinta ERMACORA: Sorry, these are the facts. Business investment in the September quarter was up 3.6 per cent, the fastest quarterly growth in over two years. NAB has named Melbourne as Australia’s most entrepreneurial neighbourhood, with a 12 per cent increase in the number of business accounts opening and six of the top 10 fastest growing postcodes for new businesses located in Melbourne. Just last November the Premier announced the state’s first major subsea fibre-optic cable and the return of international flights to Avalon Airport. Let us have a look at the list. Victoria will soon be the home of Quantum Brilliance, a world-first commercial quantum diamond foundry; NEXTDC’s $2 billion next-generation digital campus in Fishermans Bend; an Asia Pacific $300 million manufacturing base in Dooen – in case you do not know, that is potato chips, plenty of potato chips for those in Horsham and the rest of the state; leading sports technology company Sportable’s Asia-Pacific headquarters; and Mondelēz International’s new state-of-the-art national distribution centre at Truganina. Billions and billions of investment dollars are flowing into Victoria. That does not sound like a place that is bad to do business in to me.

Our record on supporting small business is clear. The hand-waving nonsense from those opposite just does not stack up when you look at the facts. Since we have come to government we have cut taxes over 76 times, including, again, increasing the payroll tax threshold to $1 million from 1 July 2025, up from a $700,000 threshold two years before. Over 6000 small businesses now no longer pay a cent of payroll tax, and 26,000 businesses will pay reduced payroll tax, saving up to $14,550 per year. These are savings those opposite tried to block. Let me repeat that: these are savings that those opposite tried to block. Importantly, we have given businesses in regional Victoria a 75 per cent discount on payroll tax. Particularly for those who are subject to payroll tax, this recognises the importance of small business in regional Victoria. Perhaps this discount explains the low unemployment rate in Warrnambool.

Payroll tax is not the only way we have streamlined and supported small businesses. We have abolished stamp duty on commercial and industrial property, replacing it with a more efficient annual tax based on unimproved land value. We have abolished business insurance duty over a 10-year period up to 30 June 2034. This will save businesses around $830 million over the first five years. All of this has been done as part of a long-term, well-thought-out strategy. It was not just willy-nilly, based on a handful of metrics selected on some vague notion of ‘regulatory burden’ touted by Jess Wilson and her former employer the Business Council of Australia. Our Economic Growth Statement sets the framework for supporting small business, with a 10-year plan to unlock industrial land; a streamlined single entry point for businesses on all investment-related engagements within the Victorian government; assisting more small and medium-sized businesses to take their products to global markets and helping them identify new markets and break into a diversified customer base; halving the number of business regulators by 2030; and replacing paper-based or outdated digital processes, streamlining licensing and other approvals and addressing pain points for businesses.

The Allan Labor government is working towards our target to slash the regulatory burden on business to the tune of $500 million by 2030.

We have got a plan that is working and we are delivering for Victorians, while the only strategy those opposite can come up with is cuts, cuts and more cuts. When they were last in power the Liberals cut health and education. Families paid the price. In Warrnambool TAFE was cut and 70 jobs were lost last time those opposite were in power, and I do not think we can trust them with free TAFE. Now they have an $11.1 billion black hole in their budget over there, and that means cuts that make life harder and jobs lost. The economy will slow – a familiar story. They are too busy fighting each other to fight for Victorians. Perhaps if Mrs McArthur had taken a few of her colleagues on the educational trip with her, they would not have felt the need to leak this to the media. I will leave my remarks there, and despite having a large number –

Bev McArthur interjected.

The PRESIDENT: Mrs McArthur, please. You have had your contribution.

Jacinta ERMACORA: I will leave my remarks there. There is plenty to say about the other sections in Mrs McArthur’s motion, and I will leave it to my colleagues to tear those apart with pleasure.

 Trung LUU (Western Metropolitan) (11:37): I rise today to speak in support of this motion 1303 put forward by Mrs Bev McArthur and to address the matter of the growing urgency affecting communities across metropolitan regions and regional Victoria and the mounting pressure faced by our small businesses. Small businesses are the backbone of our state economy. They are the cafes on our corners, the mum-and-dad and family-owned shops on our high streets, the tradespeople, the service providers and the employers of most Victorians. Yet today they are under extraordinary restraint. We are witnessing rising taxes under this Labor government, soaring energy costs, expanding government burdens and red tape and a surge in retail crime, which together are pushing many operators to the brink.

The Business Council of Australia’s Regulation Rumble 2025 has once again ranked Victoria last in the nation for cost and governing burdens, a deepened concern and reflection of the pressure placed on the very businesses that keep our economy functioning. Compounding this, the Victorian Regional Chamber Alliance’s business health survey report from October 2025 reveals that nearly 40 per cent of regional businesses have recorded their worst performance in history in the past six months. This is not just economic data, it is the lived reality of thousands of local business owners who are struggling to keep doors open. You only have to walk down your local street to see how many shops are closed. Just count. You see doors closed after doors closed. That is just the lived reality under this Labor government.

I want to draw attention to an issue that goes to the heart of government accountability and the burdens placed on Victorian taxpayers. A recent report has confirmed that the Allan Labor government is set to spend approximately $40 million of public funds defending a massive class action brought by thousands of small businesses. These mum-and-dad businesses suffered significant financial loss during Victoria’s second wave of COVID-19 lockdowns, an outbreak linked to the failure of the state’s hotel quarantine program. Just imagine how long ago the lockdown was. Just bring back your memories. The class action involves thousands of affected business owners and is now moving towards three months of Supreme Court trial. The government’s decision to commit $40 million of taxpayers funds to defend the class action underscores how consequential these decisions were for these businesses across our state at a time when many small operators are still recovering from the enormous legal spending rise. There are serious questions about the priorities of this government, transparency from this government and responsibility from this government. Our business communities deserve clarity, fairness and a government that works with them, not against them.

This case is more than just a legal battle. It is a reminder of the lasting impact of the Labor government’s policies and decisions and the importance of safeguarding both livelihoods and public trust. Public trust is the key.

Nowhere is the crisis felt more acutely than in Melbourne’s Western Metropolitan Region. I will give you an example in Werribee. Traders have been confronting an alarming escalation in retail theft and violent incidents. Local business owners others have gone to the media to say they have gone out of their wits, describing theft, drug activities and disorder, reaching a climax along Watton Street down where my office is. Some traders are so distressed that they are beginning to discuss the possibility of hiring private security and forming vigilante groups because they feel there is no meaningful action being taken to protect them by this government. When small business owners in our community feel that they must contemplate hiring security guards just to run a business or patrolling their own streets at night, something is profoundly wrong in the community.

Across Victoria the picture is much the same. Data shows that business theft surged 20 per cent in 2025, with Victoria recording the highest share of theft claims, around 40 per cent of the national figure. Cafes, salons, retail operators – these are the heart of our shopping strips and are losing cash, tools, stock and equipment at a rate that they can no longer absorb. This is a crisis impacting both economic viability and community safety. Retail crime is not a victimless offence. For small business operators on tight margins, even single theft incidents can wipe a weekly profit. Repeat theft can spell closure, as we have seen. Small business owners are calling out for help.

We need to know the department is listening. So today this motion moved by my colleague calls for some meaningful action. Instead of spending $40 million of taxpayers funding on a class action, why don’t we instead spend it on regulatory reform, a comprehensive reduction of unnecessary red tape ensuring small businesses can open effectively and competitively; relief from rising costs; targeted financial assistance to help businesses manage their stock, rising energy costs and operating expenses; a stronger response to retail theft; increased police resources at known black spots, including Melbourne’s west, where my electorate is; and a cooperative approach between state agencies, local councils and business groups to restore safety for our shopping strips?

I want to end: the success of Victoria depends on the success of small businesses. They are not asking for special treatment, only a fair chance to survive, to grow and to contribute to the communities they strengthen every day. At this moment they are telling us clearly they cannot weather these challenges alone. I ask members to support this motion. The Parliament must listen. We must act, and we must stand with small businesses that stand with us.

 Michael GALEA (South-Eastern Metropolitan) (11:43): I am pleased to rise to speak to and mop up some of the mess that Mrs McArthur has left for us and see if we can get to the bottom of some of the points that she has made in her wideranging and odd contribution today. I see that she has nicked Mr Davis’s cherry picker and she has reversed it right into the chamber once again, right on cue for a Wednesday, picking out a few things here and there that help her to craft the narrative that she is so desperately clinging on to and that the Liberal Party in this state are so desperately clinging on to as they continue their efforts to talk down this great state and the many enterprising people that are out there running small businesses, starting small businesses in this state, in many such cases with the full support of the government and its policies, which I will get to in just a moment.

Speaking of cherrypicking, Mrs McArthur, you have elected to quote extensively in your motion from a fairly curious report – not so much curious for what it says but for what it explicitly omits.

Let us talk about payroll tax, which is one of the biggest levers that the state governments can have to positively or negatively affect business in this state, and let us look at the record of reforms that this government has made. The report explicitly only focuses on top-level rates of payroll tax, which is convenient for the Liberal Party to quote from because that means that it completely ignores the raising of the tax-free threshold up to $1 million.

Bev McArthur: One million dollars? Have you ever been in business? Do you know where $1 million goes?

Michael GALEA: The Liberal Party might want to ignore that, but I can tell you that, for the 32,000 small businesses in this state who are going to either pay no payroll tax as a result of this change or pay much less payroll tax as a result of that, that is no small deal to them. Whilst you talk that down, I find it extraordinary, Mrs McArthur, that you try to assume or infer that Labor says all business is big business. But you are the ones quoting from a report that explicitly excludes payroll taxes for small businesses in its calculations. They are talking to the big end of town. So are you of course, but you like to frame it in small business because you think it sounds more palatable. But we are getting on with delivering those improvements, and the payroll tax increased threshold is an excellent example of that. You are using the figures for big business to try and say that small businesses are hurting as a result, which is actually you guys confusing the two.

Bev McArthur interjected.

Michael GALEA: And now you are trying to deflect to another issue because you do not have an answer to it, because you know you are only talking to the top end of town and using reports designed to benefit them and trying to broaden that across small business. Well, small businesses in this state – 32,000 of them – are better off as a result of the payroll tax reforms made.

Let me tell you about some other businesses in this state that are beneficiaries of payroll tax reforms that this government has made, and those are regional businesses, because Victoria now has the lowest regional payroll tax rate anywhere in the country. Businesses in regional Victoria are paying lower payroll tax than anywhere else in this nation because of the direct actions of this government to repeatedly lower it. I note that the report that you quote from – and you have to deflect and deflect and deflect because the report that you quote from –

Bev McArthur interjected.

Michael GALEA: Let me quote from it, Mrs McArthur:

We have not accounted for regional rates in our rankings.

Wow. This is a report that not only speaks just to the top end of town, it explicitly – it says it in black and white – is ignoring regional Victorian businesses. So you are coming in here today, Mrs McArthur, and you are ignoring these the regional small businesses in this state by trying to conflate that with a report that is designed for the top end of town in Collins Street and equate it to what is happening in regional high streets across this state. You have completely ignored it. You have completely ignored the fact that regional payroll taxes in Victoria are the lowest anywhere in the nation, because it is convenient for you to do so. It is convenient for you to use a report that is designed for the top end of town and conflate that with everything else.

Ms Ermacora has already gone through and extensively laid out many of the investments that are being made of course. We have seen 123,000 businesses start in this state since June 2020, a 20 per cent increase in fact and the highest of any state or territory. You also conveniently left that fact off the cherry picker as you drove it into the chamber today, Mrs McArthur. You forgot that one too, and the fact that 59,000 jobs were created in Victoria in the past year. Indeed I note the comments from Ms Ermacora citing the NAB index showing that Melbourne is Australia’s entrepreneurial hub, as it were. Six out of the 10 national postcodes are in the Melbourne metropolitan area for the top entrepreneurial activity in this nation, and that is a reflection of what happens when you have a government that is not focused on the top end of town or on doing deals with One Nation but on working with working people and small business owners and changing the settings that actually make a difference, such as the payroll tax threshold increasing and such as regional payroll tax rates as well. This is just typical of a party that is all focused on cynicism and driving this state down, rather than delivering for Victorians.

Members interjecting.

The PRESIDENT: Can I ask the chamber to come to order a bit? Thanks.

Michael GALEA: We are straying a little bit here, but I would draw the house’s attention to – and nothing at all against my colleague Ms Tyrrell, but I do question, since you raised it – which of your colleagues on these benches are currently actively going around saying that they are going to join One Nation? Which is it? Do we know? Well, we do know who it is. We know multiple of your colleagues are going around saying that they wish to join One Nation, and candidates who are being specifically endorsed by Jess Wilson are apparently going around telling people that they are going to defect to One Nation. I do not know who that might be – we probably have some idea – but that is just testament to a party for which the wheels are completely falling off because there is no unity, there is no discipline, and you have a leader who is actively going out and endorsing these people despite them going out and making these threats against the party. No wonder things are going so poorly for you.

I would like to come to another thing that Mrs McArthur raised, which is something that this government takes very seriously, through actions that we have undertaken previously and currently, and that is addressing retail crime in this state. Mrs McArthur, you may find this interesting. We have not only brought in new laws that bring in tougher penalties for people that assault or violently abuse retail workers; we are also bringing in workplace protection orders this year that will be able to exclude violent and repeat offenders in stores. We have successfully delivered Operation Pulse over the summer period. I will happily tell you more about that later today, Mrs McArthur, if you like. I know that the Liberals are opposing PSOs being rolled out to shopping centres, but I can tell you the feedback to this has been nothing short of phenomenal from the community – the support from retailers, from the retail companies themselves, from retail workers and indeed from the customers who feel safer shopping at centres such as Fountain Gate in my electorate and many more across the state as well. That is the operation that you would claw back – that you would cut.

Speaking of things that you would cut, we have also brought in tougher bail laws, tougher sentencing laws, adult time for violent crime and the violence reduction unit to get early interventions into place – another thing that a Liberal MP endorsed specifically by Jess Wilson has said that she would cut. We have had adjournments in this place calling on the violence reduction unit to be cut, yet then you turn around with an apparent straight face, Mrs McArthur, claiming to care about retail crime when you are actively calling for the programs that we are putting into place to address this issue to be cut – because that is all that you would do, is cut, cut, cut. You have an $11 billion budget black hole, and your plan is just to cut things further. You want to cut the violence reduction unit. You want to cut PSOs from shopping centres. What is more, Mrs McArthur –

Bev McArthur interjected.

The PRESIDENT: Mrs McArthur, too loud.

Bev McArthur interjected.

The PRESIDENT: Mrs McArthur, please. No-one interjected on your contribution.

A member: Who is going to One Nation?

Michael GALEA: We do not know who is going to One Nation – maybe it is more than one or two of you – but the fact is we have a Liberal leader who is desperately trying to court votes. We saw the Liberal Party actually, and in full credit to Ms Tyrrell, make themselves more extreme last week in their votes in this place than One Nation in their desperate attempt, falling over themselves, to fall into One Nation’s voter pool.

Tom McIntosh: One Nation doesn’t want them.

Michael GALEA: They would be crazy to want them, Mr McIntosh. I will leave that for Ms Tyrrell. We have brought her into this debate enough today as it is. The fact remains, Mrs McArthur, that when you come in with cherrypicked data, despite the fact that Victoria continues to have some of the strongest business growth in this nation, while you talk this state down, you are an absolute rabble.

 Moira DEEMING (Western Metropolitan) (11:54): I also rise to support my wonderful colleague Bev McArthur’s motion here, because it is very obvious that all across Victoria small businesses are indeed suffering and fleeing. That pressure reflects the philosophy of the Labor Party. They govern according to their philosophy, which of course is socialism. They can put the word ‘democratic’ in front of it; it does not really make a difference.

A member interjected.

Moira DEEMING: It is definitely not democratic over there.

Sonja Terpstra: So you don’t want public health? You don’t want public schools?

Moira DEEMING: Logic is not your strong point, is it? Labor Party philosophy, socialism, is all about taking power, money and resources and redistributing wealth, power and influence into their own hands, their own circles. They do not like anybody to be able to make their own decisions or to be able to spend their money how they want. They want everybody in this state on their knees, begging this government year after year for grant money for their sports clubs when it should have been properly funded. Grants for the next round of funding? It is ridiculous. You misuse our taxes, people flee and then you call everybody hateful and blame the people that you are supposed to govern over. You have contempt for the people of this state, and it is outrageous. It is absolutely outrageous that you can get up there and have contempt for the people that you have oppressed, that you have put into debt, that you have –

A member: Oppressed?

Moira DEEMING: Yes, during COVID-19 amongst other things. You have taken away our free speech. You have oppressed every single business. Businesses who do nothing wrong have been made to pay a mental health tax when they did not even do anything wrong. You have done nothing but exploit and rip through the people in this state non-stop, decade after decade. You are supposed to be the party of workers; you are the party of exploiters.

John Berger: You hate workers. We know you hate workers.

Moira DEEMING: I love workers. Like real people in the Labor Party, I love workers. And if we were going to –

Sonja Terpstra: On a point of order, President, I think this is quite a narrow motion pertaining to small business. I think half of the contribution that Mrs Deeming is making is completely irrelevant to the motion, and I would ask that she come back to the motion.

Bev McArthur: On the point of order, President, those on the opposite side barely got to the point at all. All they did was sledge everybody else, not argue the case about why they are attacking small businesses with $40 million of taxpayers money.

Sonja Terpstra: Further to the point of order, President, that is a point of debate; it is not a point of order. I would ask that Mrs McArthur’s alleged point of order be ruled out and that Mrs Deeming be brought back to the point of the motion.

The PRESIDENT: I have got to say, I am not upholding anyone’s point of order. I am just saying that it has been pretty loose, so it is a bit hard to rule on just one person’s contribution when it has been a bit out there.

Sonja Terpstra: Further to the point of order, President, I just would like to add that I think Mrs Deeming’s contribution has been a little bit more loose than most in here.

The PRESIDENT: It is all a matter of opinion.

Moira DEEMING: What is not a matter of opinion is basic logic, which you should make yourself availed of.

Michael Galea: Make yourself availed of?

Moira DEEMING: You should avail yourself of. There we go, English teacher. Thank you very much, sir. As I was saying when I did get off topic, this is the so-called party of workers, but that does not mean that you forget about the businesses who create the jobs for those workers. Six minutes – all right, I will get back to my speech. One minute – I have only got 1 minute left. Well, I will not repeat all the stats that my learned colleagues have already gone over.

Members interjecting.

Moira DEEMING: I am being interrupted by my own side here – all right, sh. I am very capable of telling Mr McGowan to get out if I want him to, thank you very much. How long have I got, President?

The PRESIDENT: You have still got about 1 minute till question time. It takes me about 1 minute to tell you it is about 1 minute, so over to you.

Moira DEEMING: We already know about the soaring business costs that are destroying businesses in Victoria. We already talked about the crime. We have had many, many small business owners contact us. We have had kind of like a private union group for businesses contact us complaining that we have businesses in Victoria that are actually being extorted. They already got rid of the cigarettes. They are being extorted now just for the pleasure of not having these criminals come in and threaten and harm their workers. They just have to pay an extra tax to the criminals on top of the criminal taxes that they are already paying to this government that does not care about anybody having work to do that can pay proper wages.

I commend Mrs McArthur for this motion. I condemn the government for their oppressive restriction on freedoms, their bureaucracy and their ineptitude, which means that we have all these crises one after another. I commend it to the house.

Business interrupted pursuant to sessional orders.