Dandenong traders
Matthew GUY (Bulleen) (09:45): On the weekend I went and visited traders at Victoria’s well-known Little India precinct in Dandenong to hear about some of the plight that traders are going through in relation to their disputes with the state government in relation to rent. Members might be aware that it was the Brumby government that compulsorily acquired these traders, and since then successive governments have tried to manage the redevelopment of central Dandenong without traders’ interests. But what we see now is that traders who were promised no rent by the Andrews government are now paying not just rent but in fact double the rent. That is what they are being required to do by the Allan government. Double the rent – it is unfair to do this to small business people who are suffering so much in Victoria, particularly in our famed Little India precinct.