Read all the latest news from Brendan O'Connor MP
Read all the latest news from Brendan O'Connor MP
The bushfire crisis is a national emergency requiring a national response.
Labor urges the Morrison Government to ensure Australian small and family business voices are heard, to mitigate the pain and suffering from the current emergency, and help them prepare them for future risks.
Many small and family businesses have lost their livelihoods due to devastating bushfires, and face economic uncertainty during and after the fires.
Ensuring small business voices are heard isn’t a party-political observation. Small business lobby leader Peter Strong (COSBOA CEO) has observed:
‘(The Government’s) failure to accept and manage change and risk has been a key issue leading up to this disaster. We are concerned that the attitude from climate deniers that ‘this is normal’ and ‘nothing to see here’ means that we will continue to have that small number of government MPs with ideological beliefs and dented egos having too much say and too much influence. This will only hold us back from repair and regrowth…
They have denied anything has changed and when confronted with the common sense of preparing for the risk of fires and disaster they have turned deaf and refused to prepare for what always happens in Australia - bushfires, droughts and floods. Their denial is because they do not believe disasters occur any more often than in the past. This intellectual indifference of the few has endangered us all’
Small businesses are rarely political. But they are resilient and active community members, as demonstrated by the small businesses who were among the first to respond to the bushfire crisis – whether that be by remaining open at all hours, offering meals and shelter, or volunteering.
Many small businesses are owner-operators and face the same risks as employees exposed to environmental hazards like smoke. Government inaction and unpreparedness in a national emergency harms the health and safety of small businesses and their workforce.
Government inaction and unpreparedness in a national emergency harms the health and safety of small businesses and their workforce.