Desperate Letter To The Premier
A letter to the Premier penned on behalf of 17 peak regional business and representative organisations has highlighted the failures of the Victorian Government’s COVID response.
Led by the Committee for Ballarat, Commerce Ballarat and Ballarat Regional Tourism, the letter pursues the need for regional Victoria to be treated differently to Melbourne.
The letter was borne out of the frustrations caused by last week’s five day state-wide lockdown in response to a small number of cases in Melbourne emerging from ongoing hotel quarantine failures.
Member for Western Victoria, Bev McArthur, said it was obvious to everyone that the blanket lockdown was disastrous.
“For the entirety of the coronavirus matter – I have argued the case that regional Victoria – many areas without a case of the virus – should be treated differently.
“A person walking alone down a country road and forced to wear a mask, hundreds of kilometres from the nearest virus case, is just absurd and unnecessary.
“Yet this is the kind of one-size-fits-all mentality of the Andrews Government that has burdened the state for a year now,” Mrs McArthur said.
She has welcomed the letter and congratulated the organisations who represent 25 per cent of Victoria’s population, including every regional Victorian ‘Committees for Cities’ and 9 regional Chambers of Commerce.
“What is stunning about this letter, is that it has taken these leadership organisations to tell the Premier what his own members of parliament should be advising him.
“What have the Member for Buninyong, Michaela Settle, or Wendouree, Juliana Addison, or the Member for South Barwon Darren Cheeseman, Western Victoria Region MPs and senior Ministers Jaala Pulford or Gayle Tierney been telling the Premier?
“These are the people who are supposed to be representing the regions, but we haven’t heard boo from them about the disastrous impact of their Government’s appalling diktats.
“Silence isn’t a solution.
“They are happy to pose for the camera, but are nowhere to be seen or heard on the real issues and damage caused by their Government’s decision making.”
The lockdown is estimated to have cost the state $1 billion. In regional cities, small businesses including the construction industry were shutdown.
Mrs McArthur raised the example of Ballarat’s Haymes Paint in the Victorian Parliament last week, highlighting the $500,000+ cost to the business of the snap shutdown and the failure of Ballarat-based Minister for Small Business, Jaala Pulford, to know what the impact was in her own home town.
The letter was also sent to Minister Pulford, the Treasurer and Minister for Jobs Martin Pakula.
It says ”…we now urge the Government to reflect deeply on the implementation of the ‘circuit breaker’ and prepare a comprehensive plan for any further ‘shutdowns’” and asks for:
A more nuanced approach when shutting down areas and regions
Greater clarity and consistency must be provided on the restrictions
Relevant departments must be better equipped to handle the enquiries of business and the community
Greater clarity for border communities
“These are basic requests that the Premier has comprehensively failed to acknowledge to date. I have argued for them consistently. I hope the Premier takes this letter seriously.
“By extension, it exposes the complete failure of regional Labor Members of Parliament to stand up for their communities, preferring to kowtow to their dictator Chairman than those who voted for them.”
The letter participants are:
Committee for Ballarat
Committee for Geelong
Committee for Echuca-Moama
Committee for Gippsland
Committee for Greater Shepparton
Committee for Portland
Commerce Ballarat
Ballarat Regional Tourism
Apollo Bay Chamber of Commerce and Tourism
Be Bendigo
Business Horsham
Business Wodonga
Colac and District Chamber of Commerce
Geelong Chamber of Commerce
Hamilton Regional Business Association
Lakes Entrance Business and Tourism Association
Port Fairy and Region Tourism
23 February 2021