Dan Hunter

They don't want to leave Sydney because they're worried, A, about the cost of fuel, but also about whether they can get fuel in those regional towns.

And so we have literally got in that sort of tourism space, in that regional space, we've got thousands of people that would normally be migrating to

at the moment with their caravans towards northern Queensland and across to the territory that haven't gone this year.

So the caravan parks are empty, the cafes aren't getting the business, the restaurants aren't getting the business, and it's really, really hurting those regional economies.

Yeah, that's right.

We saw that in the Easter period around Sydney with the stats we were seeing from our tourism providers, where basically anyone within a short freeway drive

didney uh say under two hours uh and close to the freeway was still still getting businesses still getting propped up but as soon as uh any of those tourist destinations that were a bit further off the map or a bit further afield from those metro areas they saw a lot of cancelled bookings

And you're dead right that the farmers are kind of hunkering down a bit because, and farmers are very good at this because they go through the feast and famine and cycles and things like that.

And they know they're going into a tough period of fuel and possibly drought in some areas too.

So they're hunkering down and not spending.

The tourists aren't coming.

And we've always had in our regional economies in Australia,

I guess, more of a reliance on fuel than we do in the cities.

It's exacerbated there, if you like, this fuel crisis.

And our fear is that those regional businesses are really getting hit hard and some of them won't survive and won't ever come back.

Look, I think small business is the heart and soul of the Australian economy.

And one thing they can do is reduce government spending.

We know it's too high.

It's nudging 27% now of GDP.

It should be down around 25%.