Hansard debates

Mrs McARTHUR (Western Victoria) (12:31): My question is for the Minister for Small Business and concerns the blow inflicted on businesses in Ballarat—in the minister’s own electorate, no less—which have been blindsided by the government’s sudden rule change requiring full vaccination for all staff. Businesses with single-vaccinated staff had relied on the original phase A option to open with reduced capacity while waiting for second appointments to come around. Your government has now summarily ditched that possibility. 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.

Minister, how is it fair to bring forward the deadline four weeks and give businesses just one week to fix it?