Damian Drum (Nicholls, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I've been shocked this afternoon to learn that the Victorian government has set up a new method whereby they are going to send their contracts out, or another group of state purchasing contracts, and they have now provided a list. There are 35 government departments and 125 government agencies who are currently using regional suppliers for stationery, travel, professional services and recruitment, and print. Those suppliers are all going to be dumped because they're not on this new prescribed list of suppliers for the Victorian government. Only businesses located in Melbourne are going to be on this list.

We have a list of regional business chambers of commerce—from Bendigo, Ballarat, Geelong, Shepparton, Wodonga, Echuca-Moama, Bairnsdale, Apollo Bay, Horsham—that are all up in arms because the state government in Victoria effectively says: 'We've created this little list. There are only going to be 35 suppliers. If you're not on the list, too bad.' There is an opportunity for them to get put on the list, but the expectation is that it will be an 18-month process. Is it really the time to be mandating that businesses will actually lose business they already have? Suppliers that are already supplying to government agencies and departments in Victoria are now going to have that business taken off them, and they've got to go through an 18-month process to get that business back.