Victorians vote on 28 November, and the Carroll Labor government is campaigning for a fourth consecutive term with small business support as a visible part of its pitch. Most of what follows comes from the government’s own official releases, with a smaller set of campaign pledges reported separately, since those haven’t yet appeared as government announcements.
What the government has already delivered
In the lead-up to the election, the Carroll government has used a string of official announcements to show its small business record in action.
In August, Minister for Small and Family Business Natalie Suleyman announced two new grant programs worth up to $10,000 each for local business associations and trader groups: a Multicultural Business Skills Fund, providing $5,000 grants to help diverse small business owners build skills, and a Shop Local Business Fund, offering $5,000 grants to business associations and councils for local business expos, shop-local campaigns and wellbeing initiatives. Both were delivered through the 2026-27 Victorian Budget.
The same budget included a $19 million package aimed at cutting red tape, supporting business capability and improving access to opportunities for small businesses, alongside a $14 million AI investment and the merging of LaunchVic and Breakthrough Victoria.
In October, the government appointed Greg Jennings as the new Victorian Small Business Commissioner for a three-year term, with the 2026-27 budget providing $400,000 to the Commission to hire additional Dispute Resolution Officers.
Also in October, Treasurer Colin Brooks announced more than $750,000 in Supply Chain Uplift Program grants shared across 11 Victorian manufacturers, aimed at helping small and medium businesses secure work with major defence companies. The government says the program has supported 53 small and medium-sized businesses since 2022, with almost $4 million invested in business improvement grants to date.
Earlier in the term, the government also established the Premier’s Business Council, giving business leaders a direct line of engagement with the Premier, alongside industry-led forums intended to let government hear directly from business and unions.
What’s being promised for a fourth term
Beyond what’s already been delivered, Labor has made several specific campaign pledges contingent on re-election.
The government has pledged to waive stamp duty for businesses forced to restructure out of discretionary trusts, a response to the federal government’s new 30% minimum tax rate on trusts, which could otherwise push thousands of Victorian small businesses into costly restructuring.
On transport costs, Labor has promised to cap weekly toll fees at $30 for small business fleets of up to five vehicles using CityLink, EastLink and the West Gate Tunnel, with rebates of up to $350 a week per vehicle.
New work-from-home protections, originally due to start 1 September 2026, have been delayed under Premier Ben Carroll to 1 July 2027, with small businesses given a further six months on top of that. This followed a harder line taken earlier in the year, when the government ruled out exempting small businesses from the policy altogether, a position reported in March 2026, before Jacinta Allan resigned as Premier and Carroll took over in August.
Labor has also pledged $350 million toward manufacturing, aiming to create 5,000 jobs through industry grants and co-investment, plans to standardise local business laws across councils and modernise home-business planning rules, a single Service Victoria platform for business approvals, and a new “Growth Area Entrepreneur Club” for Melbourne’s northern suburbs.
Reading the two lists together
What’s notable is the split between the two. The delivered measures, grants, the Small Business Commissioner appointment, the manufacturing supply chain program, are relatively modest in scale and largely continue existing programs rather than introducing new ones.
The campaign pledges are bigger and more structural: a trust restructuring stamp duty waiver, a toll cap, a delayed industrial relations change. Those bigger commitments are the ones that depend on the election outcome, and on a re-elected government actually legislating them in the next term.