Josh Burns (Macnamara, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

When you come to Melbourne, you come to Macnamara; you come to our iconic businesses and destinations to experience the culture and the wonders of Melbourne. But this pandemic has been devastating. It has been devastating for our cultural institutions, it's been devastating for our local businesses and it's been devastating for our events sector, which has helped power our local economy, from St Kilda all the way up to Southbank. But that's about to change, and there is hope on the horizon. There is hope for our small businesses and there is hope for our institutions that are desperate to welcome people back through their doors. Unfortunately there have been businesses that haven't made it through the pandemic. If you walk across Acland Street in St Kilda, just near where my office is, you see the remnants of businesses that didn't make it through this pandemic. It has been really difficult for those businesses and those staff to experience the loss of something they worked so hard to maintain. The good news is that there is hope on the horizon and that Melbourne is roaring back it life.

Another sector I wanted to mention is our travel agents. These small businesses have had the worst two years that they'll ever, hopefully, have to experience. Our travel agents are primarily working women, for whom, because of the really flexible hours and the nature of the work, it's a really fantastic job, a fantastic business. Over the course of this pandemic our travel agents have had to keep working, but for no revenue. They have been working to give refunds to their customers and to keep their loyalty, to keep their customers on-side, without any reward for themselves. I really wish nothing but a bumper season for our local travel agents. I hope they are able to recover some of the damages they have felt over the past few years. And I really hope that people will travel not only from Melbourne to wherever they want to go, via our travel agents, but also to Melbourne, and to come and visit our wonderful institutions, from the Arts Centre all the way down to the Palais Theatre and all the wonderful local small and independent theatre companies in between. Live music will be roaring back to life this summer, and we couldn't be more excited.

So, here's to a bumper season. Here's to a summer of recovery. Here's to some certainty for our small businesses. And here's to Macnamara businesses and small businesses roaring back to life this summer.

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