Ms PATTEN (Northern Metropolitan) — My question is for the Minister for Small Business, Innovation and Trade. I have a constituent who provides fresh produce at the Queen Victoria Market. She operates one of the 700 individual businesses at the Queen Vic market, which incidentally has the highest concentration of small businesses anywhere in the country. Many of these stallholders are concerned about effects that will flow from the City of Melbourne’s master plan for the market redevelopment. The plan’s strong emphasis on seven-day trading and extended trading hours, and the business pressures this creates, may well mean that my constituent cannot continue trading. Many of her fellow operators will be affected in the same way. What is the Minister for Small Business, Innovation and Trade doing to ensure that the Queen Victoria Market redevelopment does not adversely affect this very significant grouping of Victorian small businesses?
