An open letter to Steven Marshall

An open letter to Steven Marshall and Peter Malinauskas,

This is not about politics, nor is it about government handouts or anything else the papers may choose to pick up on today. I write this as the publican of The Duke of Brunswick Hotel a small family business less than three years old that has done it's best to weather the storm that has been 2020.

When I took on this business three years ago it employed three people and it now employs 18. As a single mother of two boys I want to start by debunking the myth that hospitality operators are rolling in money. That we are all of us pokie barons or Ferrari drivers, because most of us are not.

The bulk of our industry are made up of people like myself, people who drive the local economy, open up their spaces for free to community groups and donate goods, services and money to interest groups and sporting clubs alike.

Whilst Martin K Haese and Ian Horne have this week acknowledged the huge mental, emotional and financial strain we and our staff members are under, you have not.

You ask us to be patient and to acknowledge that restrictions will not last one day longer than is necessary and yet you fail to respond to our requests for support or even acknowledgment of the terrible burden that we as an industry are expected to carry.

When COVID first hit we diligently took on extra debt burdens to carry our businesses through as the federal government suggested, all of us happy to have qualified for the first round of job keeper. What you and perhaps the economists fail to understand is that like any good operator we and the 40 other restaurateurs and hoteliers who met at Amalfi yesterday, have dug in our heels and traded ourselves out of the circumstances we found ourselves in. Successfully blocking ourselves from any access to job keeper 2.0, proud of our collective efforts and tenacity that made this so.

Now due to no fault of our own we are a victim of our own success thanks to a solid quarter we find ourselves adrift with restrictions that incapacitate our ability to trade at break even, with cash boost loan repayments falling due and our hands tied at what is usually our busiest time of the year, the time when all of us put aside our profits for the rainy day that is winter when our numbers fall.

As an industry we are calling on you to respond to our plight, to give us the hoops to jump through to allow us to return to 1 person per 2 square metres and to cease distracting the public from our plight with mentions of removals of caps when we all know that the reality is that nothing has materially changed.

All we are asking for is a fair go, we have met you every step of the way and now you choose to ignore the plight of an industry that is the backbone of the economy on so many levels. The time for politics is long past the time for honest conversations is at hand.

All of us are watching and wondering why you continue to ignore those small family businesses that you built your political platform upon - a premier for all business.

I don't discount the plights of many other industries right now but I am raising my voice for the one that I hold dear in the hope that you act before its too late. If you are one of my many friends in the industry lend your voice to the call by sharing this far and wide. Help show the politicians just howmany voices they are crushing.