Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Health) Share this | Hansard source

Apparently, this government is a government of small business but, clearly, not in Ballarat or in the Central Highlands region of Victoria. Where we have potential job growth from those small businesses, money has been absolutely slashed. It is to the credit of the small business advisory service that they will try and continue to provide those services at a fee—it was a service provided for free previously.

We are seeing a pattern here: cut after cut after cut. For regional communities such as mine, we do not have other major centres where people can go and find work—particularly unskilled workers and young people. The support services, emergency relief and homelessness services are also being cut. Frankly, this government needs to reverse those cuts and understand the cumulative effect, and I call on it to do so. (Time expired)

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