Keeping Tasmanians Safe
Mr. Speaker, I welcome the opportunity to speak to this because it is such an important topic about keeping Tasmanians safe and confident.
After three days of questioning the Small Business minister and an opportunity to ask a question of the Premier regarding the circumstances of small business operators across Tasmania, my concern on behalf of the people of Tasmania is that there is a lack of confidence in the Government's ability to keep them and their families safe because of a lack of understanding of what it takes to operate a microbusiness, a small business: what it takes, not only to be a sole trader but a sole operator.
This Government professes that they are here for people, no matter their circumstances.
However, I question whether people on the other side understand the lives of families right now, after three days of bringing to the Government's attention the concerns, worry and stress of many individuals and families across Tasmania who are struggling due to border closures.
We shared stories this week of Mr. Lewis, a gentleman who has an independent taxi license, operating out of Perth to the Launceston Airport, the Launceston Airport that, with Hobart, has gone from 30 to 100 contracted workers stood down now.
What for them and their families? How do they feel confident about their circumstances, their ability to bring home an income to their family, to provide food on the table, fuel in the car and to keep a roof over their head?
After questions this week, I am calling on the minister to join me in Launceston, to meet with people in this circumstance, to understand and hear directly from people the certainty that they need to be confident in their futures. It is okay to say we feel confident about Tasmania, for many people are doing well.
But for those who are not, people in our community need a government for all Tasmanians, Tasmanians who are struggling today. Overnight I received correspondence from someone eligible for the grants, a successful business, long-time operated in Tasmania.
However, the closures have had an immediate and devastating impact on their income. They were eligible for $2000, despite just recently losing $20 000 of income. The grants are welcomed for the small impact they make but we must go further.
Any investment we make now defers the need for a greater investment in the future, when there is time to recover, when that moment returns that people need to find their employees again; when they need to reskill, in order that they can be confident to do that.
We heard yesterday from a very successful operator, Bianca Welsh, from Stillwater and Black Cow. She is experiencing a 60 per cent decrease in weekly income right now.
She is worried about being able to sustain her business right now and worried about other operators who cannot go on and worried that there is a lack of understanding about the serious concerns and the real impacts right now.
Many of our families, our individuals operating small businesses, are worried and concerned and have no confidence that there is an understanding.
All the reserves, for many, were spent last year. Many people who had businesses that were able to accumulate reserves spent those and invested them in their futures last year. Now they are operating without the federal government support, without reserves, on a weekly basis, worrying about how they can provide for their families.
For me it is not just in the obvious often-mentioned impacts on hospitality and tourism. I have had the opportunity over the last month to travel across Tasmania to speak to businesses of all scales, in all sectors.
A worry that came to me was in a conversation about a fisheries business - a great industry for Tasmania, an important industry not only for the economy but for the brand.
This individual employs 15 people. That is 15 families in regional Tasmania with a worry, a lack of confidence in their immediate future right now.
The business owner has had no cash sales, despite a brilliant business over many years, due to the impact of the New South Wales lockdown for six weeks and has the responsibility of 15 families at their hand.
My concern is for the individuals in Tasmania, the small businesses, the person that is the only income producer in their family. The person that stays up at night and is worrying, concerned and not confident about their future.
What can we do now? Not 'how can we reassess criteria, how we can consider this for frameworks into the future?', but what action will be taken today?
What will we invest now for the many people in Tasmania who are worried, stressed - and we understand the impact of stress: the concern for mental health, the concern for other impacts and collapses in families and communities.
Although we all work for and want to be part of creating a safe and confident Tasmania, we need to do that for all Tasmanians, not just those with the reserves remaining, not those who have support from others, but those feeding their family, those who are part of our community and who deserve our support right now as well.
We, on this side, seek for the Government to make sure they hear this message now from the many Tasmanians writing to both sides of this House about their immediate circumstances and we act now to invest, to create certainty and confidence.
The investment required to make when it breaks down, when there are increased job losses, where there is business failure, where people are spiraling into concerns with their mental health - the cost in the future to rebuild from this - will be far greater than the investment that we need to make today.
26th August 2021 - 11:51am
Video - YouTube