MR PALLAS (Werribee—Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Industrial Relations) (13:10):

On 2 October the Andrews Labor government announced a $196.6 million package of one-off cash grants for eligible construction businesses, including sole traders most affected by the recent building sector restrictions period.

More than 70 000 construction firms right across areas such as Melbourne, the city of Geelong, the Surf Coast and the Mitchell shire will be eligible for these grants.

Eligible non-employing sole traders will receive one-off payments of $2000, while eligible businesses will receive between $2800 and $8400, depending on the size of their payrolls. But it could have been so much more—if the commonwealth had partnered with us, of course those payments could have been doubled.

This is on top of the payments of $2.7 billion announced last week to support more than 160 000 businesses as part of the latest Victorian business support package. It is a time-honoured tradition in this place for those opposite—first a member from western Victoria and more recently the member for Kew—to endorse the commonwealth’s discrimination against the state of Victoria. But it hurts most when it hurts the interests of business, and it is a shame that the commonwealth—

Mr PALLAS: Let me be clear about this: the two-week reset and restart of the construction industry was vitally important to the safety of the industry and the community at large, and that is exactly what we delivered, with the industry restarting yesterday on schedule. The government is a builder, not a wrecker. Through our commitments to safety, our economic support and of course our ambitious infrastructure agenda we are back building a better and safer industry.