By Jack Morgan

Warragul Dry Cleaners will no longer clean and sanitise the uniforms of local paramedics, after their Ambulance Victoria laundering tender was awarded to a business outside of Gippsland.

The state government tender process was launched for linen and laundry services in early 2020, but owner Joanne Bourke said she found out about the tender after the cut-off date.

It’s another financial hit for Ms Bourke, who said the contract is worth a month’s rent each year. 

“It was absolutely gut wrenching for our local members, who are literally 500 metres down the road from us, to come in and tell us from now on we can’t clean their uniforms anymore,” Ms Bourke said.

Member for Eastern Victoria Melina Bath said the Victorian Government’s procurement policy, which claims to support local businesses, is rather killing off small businesses.

“Labor has an obligation to ensure small and medium size enterprises are given a full and fair opportunity to compete for government contracts – but this tender was designed to be out of the reach of Gippsland’s small businesses,” Ms Bath said.

Under the new contract, laundry will now be trucked more than 100 kilometres away where it’s cleaned and then transported back to Warragul. It’s prompted concerns about carbon emissions.

“If it’s a centralised service, the carbon footprint that will leave, which is something the government talks about, what does that do?

“We do everything that we can, we put solar on the roof, we reduce our water, we changed our solvent to make sure we’re compliant with the index, with everything that’s going on, we’re doing everything that we possibly can to do things right by the government,” Ms Bourke said.

A statement from the health department said all providers, no matter how big or small, were invited to tender for services in their local area.

“Unfortunately, no Gippsland based businesses submitted a tender application,” the statement said.

The health department said businesses awarded the new contracts are based in both regional and metropolitan areas.

Ms Bourke said her business was also impacted by lockdowns and she has had to take staff off rosters.

“We’ve lost weddings, we’ve lost funerals, we’ve lost all of the hospitality work, people working from home are in a tracksuit, not many people get their tracksuit cleaned,” Ms Bourke said. 

Normally, there would be four people employed at the dry cleaners daily, but with fewer customers and income there has been only two employees working at the business.

Ms Bath is calling for the state government decision to be rescinded.