Jane Hume (Victoria, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for the Public Service) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

One of my very favourite parts of being a senator for Victoria is getting out and about to visit different parts of the state, getting off some of those major highways and out of the big towns and seeing parts of the state that perhaps I might not have seen if I had done a different job. Just recently, I had the pleasure of visiting the electorate of Monash with our Liberal candidate Mary Aldred to join her in the beautiful part of Victoria that she calls home.

Mary is an extraordinary woman. I have known her for 20 years. She's an exemplary leader and has been an advocate for her community for decades. She was the founding CEO of the Committee for Gippsland, where under her leadership the organisation grew from being a startup to having over 100 local employers as members. She also worked in the franchise sector, so she has a deep understanding of the pressures and the operations of small businesses. I hope she'll soon be able to continue her support for small businesses in the parliament, because seeing her in action on the ground proved she is an extraordinary person and will be the amazing representative that the people of Monash need and deserve.

Mary and I travelled right around the West Gippsland region to meet with small-business owners, to meet with farmers and to meet with community representatives. Hearing from these individuals gave me a real insight into the challenges that are being faced in that region and in regional Australia more broadly, whether it be in relation to the cost of living or, particularly, the cost of doing business. While we heard many things, there was one commonality that everyone that we met shared. They absolutely loved what they did and they loved the community that they lived in.

So we started by meeting with representatives from the Corinella & District Community Centre. We met with Kerryn, with Janice and with Jan to tour the facility and to hear about the good work that they do in their town. This centre has been pivotal in providing practical support and relief to local residents in that Bass Coast shire region and in offering essential services such as food assistance and community outreach programs. They told us that they've seen an increase in demand for their services because of the high cost of living. Indeed, people who they have never had to service before have been coming through their doors. They also told us that, as much as people are struggling to make ends meet, it's very difficult for some people to reach out for assistance because they're too proud and they never thought that they would need help just to put food on the table.

These are people who work hard every day to make a living, and they're left with very little after they've paid their mortgage or paid their energy bills. As I said, they are people that have never sought help before. The sentiment around how much tougher it is for Australians to get by is one that was shared by almost everyone that we heard from at a round table that Mary hosted with me in San Remo, in Inverloch, in Warragul and in Moe. Local small businesses told us that they had to adapt their businesses in response to the change in consumer behaviour from the cost-of-living crisis. Not only are they facing uncertainty on the demand side but their business owners also said that they're facing increasing overheads and rents and are being particularly wrapped up in red tape and complex industrial relations laws, specifically in how complicated the awards system is. That came up over and over again.

It's not just our small-business owners that are facing these pressures. It's our farmers too. The electorate of Monash is an agricultural powerhouse in not just Victoria but the nation. We visited Fankhauser Apples just outside Drouin, an extraordinary place. They are producers of many types of apples, but Gippsland Golds are my absolute favourite. I highly recommend them, but they're hard to find in the supermarkets. We also met with a group of farmers from the region and were kindly hosted by Durkin Produce, in Thorpdale, which Mary proudly told me is Australia's potato capital.

During these meetings, these primary producers and farmers talked about the challenges facing their industries, particularly higher taxes in the form of the biosecurity levy and the heavy-vehicle road-user charge. One farmer told me his costs have gone up 28 per cent in the last year alone, and he followed it up with a quote: 'The cost of doing business in Australia is simply unviable. It's horrific.' We saw the farmer rally that took place on the lawns just outside of parliament today. Without our farmers, we must understand there is simply no food. We cannot understand why Labor are intent on making business impossible for our farmers.

Mary understands the pressures that farmers and small businesses in regional Victoria face because she has spent so much of her time, so much of her life, dedicated to providing a voice for these industries. She knows that only a Dutton coalition government will be able to get Australia back on track, that a Dutton coalition government will have the policies to address the concerns that were raised with us and that she is clearly the best person to advocate for the people of Monash in the next parliament, and I hope that she will be part of a Dutton coalition government.