State Member for Euroa Annabelle Cleeland said the region had been short-changed when it came to packages offered to disaster-affected areas.
“Where other communities have received meaningful business support to help them recover, our region has been left behind,” Ms Cleeland said.
“Labor are penny-pinching instead of backing our tourism operators and small businesses when they need it most.”
She said the impact of the natural disaster would be felt far beyond the fire ground.
“Businesses in Seymour, Euroa, Avenel and Longwood weren’t just dealing with the threat of fire. They were hit with road closures, prolonged power outages and constant emergency warnings telling people not to travel into our region,” she said.
“We lost critical trade over the Australia Day period and the entire January holiday season.
“Now, businesses are telling me Easter bookings are sitting well below what they would normally expect.”
Ms Cleeland is calling for the exemption of fire-affected pubs and clubs from liquor licensing fees for the upcoming financial year, targeted business grants for impacted operators, concessional loans and investment into a co-ordinated tourism recovery campaign.
Following the bushfire, the government has announced a number of recovery initiatives to support people and businesses impacted.
These include cleanup programs for uninsured and underinsured business structures, free and confidential financial counselling and advisory support for businesses, on the ground and via the Business Victoria website, and Prolonged Power Outage Payments of $3088 per week for up to three weeks if businesses have been without power for seven or more days within a two-week period.
Harcourt Cooperative Cool Store Facility, which more than 95 businesses in and surrounding Harcourt rely on to keep apples, pears, seed potatoes, wine, craft beer and beehives at temperature, will also receive $500,000 to support its rebuild.
State Member for Northern Victoria and Victorian Treasurer Jaclyn Symes said recovery wasn’t about politics, and the government was already investing in things Ms Cleeland was calling for, including the waiving of liquor licence fees for impacted businesses.
“The recovery journey from disaster can be long, but we’ll continue to stand with and support bushfire-affected communities with what they need as they keep on their recovery journey,” Ms Symes said.
“We have already implemented liquor licence fee waivers for impacted businesses, supported Tones and I’s sold-out show to help raise money for communities and invested hundreds of millions in recovery and direct financial support.
“Calling for things the government is already doing just confuses communities already doing it tough.
“The Liberals and Nationals can play politics with fire recovery — Labor is getting on with the job of delivering for impacted bush communities.”
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