With East Gippsland businesses struggling to stay afloat and in need of direct support after the fires, today’s State Government announcement of $10,000 to East Gippsland Shire to run a ‘business resilience program’ is laughable.
That is the view of Gippsland East Nationals MP, Tim Bull, who said he thought it must have been a misprint when the media release arrived.
“They have given $10,000 to the entire shire, which covers 21,000 square kilometres. I thought it might have been meant to be $100,000, but no, the decimal point is in the right position.
“Just last week in Parliament I said the business sector needs real support. I said mentoring, tax relief and rate subsidies were all fine, but more was needed – direct cash investments were needed.
“To have this announced a couple of days later when our businesses are crying out for real support is a slap in the face.
“In his statement, the Minister has said this money can be used to help businesses ‘plan for growth and share ideas’.
“It is time to stop with these tokenistic announcements to be seen to be doing something and get some real supports in place for our business sector,” Mr Bull said.
Lakes Entrance image courtesy of Visit Victoria Content Hub
