Zoe McKenzie (Flinders, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to thank the small businesses who turned out in force to welcome the member for Farrer, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, to Flinders last Friday. Together we visited the nation's best coffee roasters, Little Rebel, to see the production of their beautiful blend of beans. A great innovator, Little Rebel serves up a delicious flat white, great merchandise and—my absolute favourite—a dispensing machine on the front porch in case theunthinkable happens and you run out of beans on the weekend.

We then headed to Boatshed Cheese, a family business in the industrial estate which makes its own goat, buffalo and cow milk cheeses. Sarah and Becky run a tight operation. The cheese is fresh and scrumptious and accompanied by local artisan produce sold directly to visitors who may drop in but also to our local restaurants and cafes and further afield. Then we dropped into the world-famous Bass & Flinders, 100 per cent female owned and run. CEO Holly Klintworth also runs the Australia Distillers Association. Bass & Flinders is the gin sponsor of the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show this weekend, with their bespoke addition Bloom Gin.

Then we joined friends at a small-business roundtable filled to overflowing in the boardroom of Smart Business Solutions. Construction, horticulture, hospitality, disability services, retail logistics, transport and vocational training all explained to us how hard they are doing it right now. Mortgage and business loan stress after 12 interest rate rises under this government, surging land tax under their comrades in Spring Street and the cost-of-living pressures are closing the family wallet shut.