Grand Final public holiday to cause ‘unrecoverable’ damage to small business

Victoria’s Chamber of Commerce has taken another swipe at the upcoming grand final holiday, with CEO Mark Stone telling 3AW it would cause ‘unrecoverable’ damage to small business.

Mr Stone said parts of Melbourne’s CBD would be like a ‘ghost-town’ on Friday, with many businesses ‘unable’ to open due to the fact they’d be paying staff 2.5 times the normal rate.

He said it was going to cost the state more than ‘half a billion dollars’ for people to not come to work.

‘It’s not recoverable,’ Mr Stone told Tom Elliott on 3AW Drive.

LISTEN: Mark Stone takes the public holiday to task