Over the past few weeks, I’ve met with local business owners from every corner of our region – manufacturers, retailers, farmers, and service providers. No matter the industry, the message is the same: red tape is strangling local business.
Instead of supporting those who create jobs and drive our regional economy, the Allan Labor Government is burying them under layers of bureaucracy, rising compliance costs, and ever-changing rules. These aren’t minor inconveniences, they’re crushing small and medium-sized businesses into closure.
This regulatory overload is stopping investment in its tracks. While other states are working to cut red tape and welcome enterprise, Victoria is doing the opposite, closing doors and sending business elsewhere.
Red tape doesn’t just hurt business owners. It hurts workers, families, and entire communities. When local businesses can’t grow, we all lose. Jobs dry up, wages stagnate, and services disappear.
The Nationals believe government should be a partner, not a barrier. We believe in practical reform, targeted support, and treating local businesses with the respect they deserve, not as cash cows to be taxed and regulated into submission.
I’ll keep fighting for a government that listens to business, not stifles it.
If you’re a local business owner fed up with the current system, I want to hear your story because it’s time your voice was heard.