Victoria’s agricultural shows and field days are desperate for a financial lifeline to ensure their survival into next year as COVID uncertainty continues to force more cancellations. Shows at Maffra, Colac, Cobram, Nhill, Warracknabeal, Sunbury and Berrigan are among those to cancel the 2021 events, with more expected to follow. Shadow Minister for Agriculture Peter…
The Andrews Labor Government has failed to step up to the plate to solve a desperate shortage of workers across Victorian farms and agriculture businesses. Tens of thousands of vacancies that need to be filled in Victoria’s horticulture industry are just the tip of the iceberg as the closure of international borders – and Victoria’s…
Opinion; by the Leader of The Nationals Peter Walsh Shepparton food processor SPC recently became the first Australian business to mandate COVID vaccination for all onsite staff and visitors. Announcing the commercial decision, SPC chair Hussein Rifai said: “we honestly saw very little other options but to take this step”. Protecting the integrity of the…
Today’s announcement dismantling the border bubble by the Andrews Labor Government’s new permit scheme is an unnecessary, bureaucratic impost that will crush Victorian-New South Wales border communities. From 1pm Thursday 12 August, a permit system will replace existing licence checks for border community residents to allow border residents to travel between NSW and Victoria –…
The Bendigo community can finally access a record of their COVID check-in history, after the Service Victoria smartphone application was quietly updated over the weekend. All Victorians are required to check-in to locations as part of our state’s efforts to stop the spread of COVID, but Victorians have been denied the opportunity to see their…
The Nationals leader and Member for Murray Plains, Peter Walsh, said this week we had finally been delivered the news every regional Victorian needed to hear – we’ve come out of lockdown. Sort of. But Mr Walsh said it was all too little, too late. He said with no active cases or exposure sites in…
The Nationals leader and Member for Murray Plains, Peter Walsh, says blatant, long-term contempt for regional Victoria in general, and our cross-border communities in particular, is fast approaching the point of no return. Mr Walsh said thousands of people, businesses and jobs have again been trapped in a straitjacket for no reason other than political…
We’ve finally been delivered the news every regional Victorian needed to hear – we’ll come out of lockdown at 11.59pm tonight. With no active cases or exposure sites in regional Victoria, families, small business owners and communities have been pleading for common sense. Today’s announcement means our kids are back in the classroom, that our…
Friday 6 August 2021 There’s only one response to today’s embarrassing revelations that sewerage at Wangaratta ultimately tested negative for COVID: release regional Victoria from lockdown. Announcing the snap statewide lockdown due to outbreaks in parts of Melbourne, Daniel Andrews claimed wastewater at Wangaratta “has pinged, if you like, firstly positive, then it went…
The Nationals leader and Member for Murray Plains, Peter Walsh, said support packages without restrictive criteria that excludes any level of business must go hand in hand with any COVID-19 lockdowns. Mr Walsh said “the goodwill has gone; the reserves have dried up and for some there is no tomorrow without full compensation for losses”.…
