Ms JENNY AITCHISON (Maitland) (19:31): Despite the obvious economic impacts that the inability to trade and work has had on Maitland and the rest of the Hunter area, the New South Wales Liberals‑Nationals Government has failed to provide appropriate access to financial and other supports, like the small business grant, to small businesses in my electorate. The eligibility requirements for the small business grants were totally irrelevant to businesses in Maitland. The initial eligibility requirement was that businesses had to have suffered a 30 per cent decrease in income between 26 June and 17 July. That prevented many of the small businesses in my electorate from accessing that grant for some time. The Hunter region went into lockdown on 5 August so the scope of dates was completely irrelevant.

Business owners have complained to me and said that one of the alternative options they had was to compare their figures with a period that took in the long weekend in June. So they had to show a 30 per cent decline in business over 10 days as opposed to nine days when they had already suffered a 10 per cent loss because they were not trading on a public holiday. Such a lack of thought and foresight went into the eligibility of these businesses and it was not adjusted. Many businesses were told by their accountants and by Service NSW that they were not eligible when they could not get onto the website. When Sydney went into lockdown many businesses went into decline because they were relying on Sydney tourists and visitors to use their services. Even after businesses went through all the hoops and barriers to apply for a grant it took many weeks before any money was paid into their accounts.

The inequity that occurred with vaccine supplies is really impacting now. When the rest of the State was at 70 per cent double vaccination rates, Maitland was only at 50 per cent for a single dose which meant that one in two people was not vaccinated. JobSaver payments were immediately dropped by 30 to 40 per cent and businesses could not employ staff who were not double vaccinated. We had a win with the decision made by the former Deputy Premier but that decision kept changing. People in those regions had to fight to find out whether they were allowed to trade and the Government's support was decreasing every day.

In fact, on the weekend before trade commenced a business owner said to me, "I don't even know what I am going to do. I have changed my roster six times this week, depending on the mood of whichever member of the Government as to whether we could trade." The lack of the Pfizer vaccine in the regions disproportionately impacted people who are at the age of employment. So it really did impact our workforce. Another issue is that even though we were able to get an exemption for workers with one vaccination, there were still no customers. That has become a real issue. A further issue is the lack of understanding for people who are unable to access quick response [QR] codes because they do not have a smartphone.

Just this morning a woman told me that her doctor provided a written vaccine passport on the GP letterhead because she could not access the passport on her phone. Of course, the business she attended could not accept it because the document was not from the Australian Immunisation Register, which has a five‑week waiting period to print out vaccination certificates. That poor woman was trying to get essential clothing, underwear, which, as she said to one of my staff, might not be essential when you are 21 but it is when you are 81. I have even found that women were not able to access incontinence underwear or period underwear for feminine hygiene because it is not deemed as an essential service. The whole debacle in the reopening of the Hunter has created really big problems for my community. The cessation of JobSeeker will occur on 30 November and still the community is no closer to having any certainty. Before I came into the Chamber I saw on Twitter that there is now another change in relation to gyms. The New South Wales Government has let businesses down. It needs to up its game.