Graeme Deveson runs a small cleaning business with three part time employees which services customers from Swifts Creek to Dinner Plain. Thanks to the Andrews Labor Government it has just become a lot smaller.

In State Parliament this week Nationals Gippsland East MP, Tim Bull, spoke out against the Andrews Government’s labour hire licencing laws that have created a costly layer of bureaucratic red tape for small businesses like Graeme’s. 

“Graeme has been provided with legal advice that under the recently introduced Labour Hire Licensing Act, his cleaning workers who are his direct employees, are absurdly defined as “on hire” workers for whom he must obtain Labour Hire registration,” said Mr Bull.

“The cost of registration is $3,000 which is an additional cost he cannot absorb, nor can he pass on this cost to his customers under existing contracts.

“So, faced with a $500,000 fine for non-compliance with the Act, or paying an exorbitant registration fee, he is now confronted with a decision that will seriously impact the viability of his business.

“The new labour hire licensing regime is entirely unnecessary when we have a Commonwealth Fair Work Ombudsman to enforce workplace law.

“In regional areas where we don’t have the depth to our jobs market that our city cousins enjoy, the Andrews Labor Government’s needless labour hire licensing laws are killing jobs and they are harming small businesses.”

Mr Bull has called on the Minister to alter the Act to remove the adverse impacts it has placed on small rural businesses.

Dinner Plain image courtesy of Visit Victoria Content Hub