Hansard debates

Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (19:13): (1605) My adjournment matter is for the Minister for Small Business and concerns the blow inflicted on businesses in Ballarat, blindsided by the government’s sudden rule change requiring full vaccination for all staff. Operations with single-vaccinated staff had relied on the original phase A option to open with reduced capacity, waiting for second appointments to come around. They were advised on 1 October that first doses were required by 22 October and second doses by 26 November to ensure all staff could attend work. Yet from this Friday, four weeks earlier, they must now open at the new capacity levels with all staff double vaccinated or they must close. The current levels deemed safe today will suddenly be disallowed.

How can business plan and operate in this environment? How can staff? Many simply heeded the Premier’s call, ‘The best vaccine is the one you can get right now’, and went out and got AstraZeneca so may still be some weeks from being able to receive their second dose. Others had planned to get their second Pfizer dose before 26 November. This is not just an inconvenience requiring some rescheduled appointments; it is actually an impossibility. Many staff will be unable to work, some businesses will close. As Commerce Ballarat CEO, Jodie Gillett, said:

It just breaks your heart …

It makes me so angry that someone sitting in an office in Melbourne, at the stroke of a pen, is causing this much grief for people who have already been through so much.

Bec Reeves, of Formation Hairstylists in Ballarat, is one incredibly frustrated businesswoman. She has worked hard in the last few years to build up her clientele and employs six people. She said:

… news on my business NOT being able to chose to operate in PHASE A of the roadmap while my staff await their second vaccination, to be fair is absolute garbage, demoralising and completely devastating.

…

Small business across Ballarat and myself are CRYING for your help here … ALLOW us to operate under the PHASE A restrictions, ALLOW us to provide for our families, ALLOW us the decency and respect for complying with the ever changing goal post that we have been chasing around for the past 18 months!

Minister, the action I seek is simple. Give businesses the option they currently have—the option they have relied upon and made plans for—to remain open at reduced capacity. As increased vaccination rates make the public ever safer, it makes no sense at all to go backwards and may be the final straw for businesses which have already suffered so much.