A CAFE owner left heavily out-of-pocket by Victoria's border closure plans to share his hardship with Premier Daniel Andrews and Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
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Wassim Saliba, who runs La Maison on Wodonga's Lincoln Causeway, flagged the move on Sunday as the Victorian government announced a compensation package for businesses hurt by its recent five-day lockdown.
It includes $2000 grants for hospitality, wholesale food, tourism and select retailers, compensation of $2250 or $4500 for accommodation providers who lost bookings and $3000 payments to licensed venues.
There will also be a further 10,000 $200 travel vouchers offered for regional areas and 40,000 for Melbourne.
The assistance comes nearly 50 days after Victorian government ministers visited Wodonga during the border closure and heard of the economic pain it was causing.
Mr Saliba, who had been given hope he might have received recompense for having a border checkpoint stymie his trade, has still not been contacted by ministers' staff despite his case being raised in parliament.
"I'm not going to lose sleep over it but hopefully they give a little bit more consideration to our situation, especially as it was discussed in the parliament by people that care about the North East, Bill Tilley and Wendy Lovell," he said.
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Mr Saliba said he would send letters to Mr Andrews and Mr Morrison outlining the extent of damage to his business, which he estimated would run into hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Nevertheless he appreciated the latest aid.
"It will be interesting to see how quickly they get it out but it's certainly welcome news, especially in our situation where we've copped it left, right and centre," Mr Saliba said.
Murray Regional Tourism chair Wendy Greiner said the package was "encouraging".
"This is a start but it is not going to resolve the issues and we will still continue to advocate with state governments, Victoria and NSW, as well as federally, for support for the visitor economy," she said.