To make an obvious point, business is the beating heart of our economy. We have a diverse range of businesses from corporate giants to small, family-owned boutique shops and firms.

Our business community contains an enormous stock of knowledge and creative prowess which was never more on show than during the heady days of the Covid pandemic. Through two years of uncertainty, hardship and crippling worker shortages our business community held tight and pulled through as best it could.

Team AC couldn’t stop the pandemic, but we did what we could to assist.

We ran an OnlyLocal campaign, imploring local people to support local businesses and taking a pledge to step away from the keyboard and not purchase anything online for Christmas. In the final stages of the pandemic when shops were open but workers were critically scarce, we held a business forum with representatives from the Government and local business peak bodies to disseminate information about existing resources and identify further ways to help.

One outcome we achieved was an agreement from the Victorian Government to request more 491 regional working visas from the Federal Government.

We also consistently lobbied the Government for fair and proportionate treatment for our region which for 15 months of the pandemic, was at least 600 kilometres from the nearest case. Our advocacy contributed to decisions by the Government to keep us more open, more of the time, during the 2-year ordeal. When the Government failed to build in to its covid bills sufficient protections or assurance for the regions, I voted against them.

In fact, in terms of my voting record on the State of Emergency extensions and the ultimate Covid Bill, my voting record was the same as the Coalition. A fact that has been misrepresented by some, but which the parliamentary record makes clear.