Friday, 14 August 2026

 Bev McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (18:26): (2708) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Small and Family Business. The action I seek is that she publish a final acquittal of the western Victoria business bushfire recovery grant (BBRG) applications, approvals and rejections, the total grants paid, money left unspent and the total cost of administering them. After the fires tore through the Grampians and the Little Desert, Labor’s press release on 11 March announced more than $24 million in crucial support for affected businesses, including $5000 grants for small businesses and eligible primary producers. Of that, $22.84 million was allocated to these grants.

Documents obtained under freedom of information reveal what actually happened. Applications opened on 13 May. By 19 September, less than eight weeks before the fund closed, the minister was briefed that grant uptake to date had been low, with only 23 grants approved. Total payment was $115,000 – 23 businesses, $115,000, across six local government areas, home to thousands of businesses. The department went further, telling the minister that based on the mixed reception of the program, low demand and uptake, the department was unlikely to access further contingency funding. It knew why. Advising on a later program, drawing expressly on experience of this one, they warned that such grants are ‘likely to get a mixed reaction from stakeholders, particularly if few businesses meet the eligibility requirements.’ That is at the heart of it. To qualify, a business had to be an employing business with fewer than 20 full-time staff and registered with WorkSafe Victoria, which shut out every business with nobody on the books, despite the announcement referencing primary producers. It then had to prove a revenue collapse of 40 per cent and at least $10,000 over three consecutive months and pay an accountant to certify it, all for a $5000 grant.

Then there is the administration. In July 2025 the Treasurer released a further $784,000 from the funding, and this is the quote, ‘to support with the administration of the BBRG’ – not for grants but for administration. Two months later the total grants issued stood at $115,000. The brief does not break down that three-quarters of a million dollars was spent on administration. The minister can. The money was there. The need was there. What was missing was a scheme that fire-affected businesses could get into. This government counted the announcement as the achievement. Western Victoria is entitled to count what actually arrived.