• Labor MPs Jeer Country Small Business over Easter Sunday Public Holiday Law
• Shut Up Shop if you Can’t Pay 43 % Wage Bill Increase

Labor MPs jeered country MP Lachlan Millar in parliament last night as he explained why the gazettal of Easter Sunday as a public holiday will hurt small business across Western Queensland.

“Tourism is what has sustained our small retailers and hospitality businesses through the drought. I was explaining that country businesses survive on what they earn in the cooler, tourism season, not in the long hot months,” said Mr Millar.

Labor MPs interjected to disagree.

“So if they make more money, they can afford to pay their workers more money,” interjected one Labor MP.

Another Labor MP then suggested that country small business should just not open on Easter Sunday.

Mr Millar told the Parliament the gazettal will increase the hourly wage rate of hospitality businesses by 43 percent and retail businesses by 25 per cent.

“But the gazettal will not bring more tourists to Easter in the Outback because no-one actually gets a holiday who didn’t already have Sunday off,” said Mr Millar.

Mr Millar told Parliament he struggled to understand how the Labor MPs could suggest closing down as a sensible argument at a time when youth unemployment in Outback Queensland is at 33% and job participation rates are in freefall.

“What they don’t understand is that running a business in western Queensland requires two very different business models for the busy and quiet parts of the year. Stock turns and staffing requirements are totally different. Western businesses must maximise their earning in the high time to carry them over the low time,” he said.

“When the government increases your hourly wage rate by 43 per cent with the stroke of a pen, you have every right to be cranky.”