Bread and butter issues: Dutton visits Torquay

OPPOSITION Leader Peter Dutton visited Zeally Bay Sourdough this week, as part of a whistle-stop tour along the Surf Coast.

General manager Joel Farnan, also the second-generation owner of Zeally Bay Sourdough, said the visit was prompted by a story in the Surf Coast Times that detailed his struggle with staff shortages.

“We aren’t trying to be political, and we have extended the invitation to both political parties,” Farnan said.

Following a tour of the bakery, Dutton held a press conference with Senator Sarah Henderson, shadow minister for education, and Darcy Dunstan, Liberal candidate for Corangamite.

The discussions covered local economic struggles as well as broader national challenges, including immigration policies and domestic violence.

Dutton praised the bakery which employs around 40 people.

“They pay taxes, they invest back into their community, and theirs is a story of millions of small businesses and small business families who have put their own house up as security to the bank, to start from nothing to build up a successful business,” Dutton said.

Dunstan shared stories of community members overwhelmed by the rising cost of living.

“People in our community are hurting, and I’ll give you some examples, one closer to home, my mum, she works at a hardware shop, she works very hard, she works on the weekends, and after she pays her mortgage, she can barely afford to turn her heating on,” he said.

“Another example; a gentleman I was talking to the other day. He’s moving back in with his parents, with his wife and children, because he can’t afford to pay his mortgage.”

On the topic of seismic blasting in the Otway Basin, Dutton spoke to the importance of adhering to environmental regulations.

“The expectation, the legal requirement, is that they be abided by.” he said.

The project, currently pending approval from the government regulator NOSPEMA, threatens to impact 45,000 sq km of ocean, including marine parks and habitats vital to numerous endangered marine species.

Earlier this year Wannon federal member Dan Tehan, whose electorate stretches along the Victorian coast from Anglesea to the South Australian border said he was deeply concerned with the size and nature of the proposed testing.

In March, thousands of community members rallied in Torquay in one of the biggest protests Corangamite has ever seen.