Dr WEBSTER (Mallee) (15:34): I have spoken many times about the cost-of-living crisis and the impact on my constituents in Mallee. Australia is the only economy that has seen inflation increase, not decrease, since December. Labor's homegrown inflation continues to hurt small businesses in my electorate, who shoulder the weight of employing locals and keeping the lights and the heaters on in homes across Mallee. They are small and often family businesses who are now anxiously considering closing down. A recent Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry survey indicated 57 per cent of regional and remote businesses have considered leaving or closing their small businesses just over the last 12 months. The latest Australian tax office statistics show 46 per cent of small businesses did not make a profit in the most recent reporting year. Three quarters of self-employed business owners, for whom their business is their full-time livelihood, earn less than the average total weekly full-time wage. Small-business owners are getting older, with the average age now 50, up from 45 in 2006. Only eight per cent of small-business owners are under the age of 30, half of what it was in the 1970s. And what are they hearing from this incompetent government? Nothing, crickets, nada.

Andrea Doering runs Joywood Fashions in my hometown of Mildura and has been in business for 50 years. In her own words, Andrea said this week, 'Small businesses are copping it.' She says that, after COVID, they struggled like everyone else and consequently reduced staff until, as a small business, they got down to her husband, herself and one other staff member. She said: 'We worked hard. People don't realise how hard you work. Over the last 12 months, it's been tough—a brutal economy, brittle. It's just about to break. When I was young, we used to make five-year plans, but now you go day to day. You can't forward-plan in a business. Everyone rides on the back of small businesses. We won't exist. I can see other businesses dropping off every day. My husband says, "There goes another one. That one's shut." They're shutting up left, right and centre. There's no hoo-ha; it's just like, well, another one's bitten the dust. And there is no funky rhythm from Queen to accompany that line. It is nothing but sad.' Andrea says: 'In Mildura, nobody is running businesses on leases. Everyone is on month-to-month.' She says, It's a whole different game out there.' Andrea is not the only one who believes this Labor government hates Mildura and lays the blame for our current regional economic conditions on Labor. She says, 'They do it to us on purpose.' What an indictment on this shocking government.

Steve Timmis in Mildura runs the very success Fossey's Distillery, a producer and retailer of the famous Fossey's Gin. Steve says: 'In the last 12-month period, my sector is down about 40 per cent gross revenue. Additionally, our costs have risen 20 per cent. Everything has gone up: electricity, wages, superannuation. That is a 60 per cent difference on where we have been. Nobody is spending. Instead of going out one or two times a week, now it's once or twice a month. People have hunkered back down. They do not have free money to spend. I am no spring chicken and I am worn out after COVID. A lot of people at my age or younger are just worn out. I hunkered back down and I didn't spend money on myself. I had over 15 employees but they no longer work for me. I ensured they found other jobs before they left. It's a sad decision. There is not one little sniff of happiness anywhere, really.'

These are the human faces of Labor's homegrown inflation crisis. Their reckless policies and spending are driving up the cost of living and the cost of doing business.

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