Possible ripple effect from low business confidence, chamber says

A regional business group has released some dire confidence numbers to begin the year.

The Victorian Regional Chamber Alliance’s (VRCA) first 2026 Business Health Survey has reported that 44 per cent of surveyed business owners are not drawing a living wage, 65 per cent say they sometimes or never have work-life balance and that trading conditions are among the worst since 2020.

Almost 25 per cent feel they may not survive beyond 12 months in the current environment.

The alliance is associated with chambers of commerce in Ballan, Ballarat, Bendigo and the Surf Coast.

Laura Sims, president of the Ballan and District Chamber of Commerce, said business owners were working harder for less money, time and certainty about their futures.

“Reading the report, you can see in there that owners are exhausted and they deserve to be heard,” she said.

“If we can’t keep the shops opened and our businesses opened in our main streets, if we can’t keep them alive, we can’t employ the local people, and we can’t put our communities together.”

Sims said the chamber wanted vibrant towns “with shops in our street and life in our communities”.

“But this future won’t happen on its own,” she said. “It requires us all to work together: small businesses, local government, state and federal government to be partners together.”

VRCA chair and Commerce Ballarat CEO Jodie Gillett said the alliance would be providing suggestions to government in the coming weeks on what they could do to assist.

“One very small example is liquor licensing,” she said. “I have a restaurant here in Ballarat that is over 12 months old and they still do not have their full licence approved.

“If we can turn a liquor licence around in three days during COVID, why does it take 12 months now?”