Federal member for Bendigo Lisa Chesters has revealed the results of a business survey she launched in early May.
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Ms Chesters canvassed more than 100 central Victorian businesses to gauge the impact of the coronavirus pandemic on their operations.
Of the businesses surveyed, one third said they did not qualify for the Federal Government's JobKeeper wage subsidy.
Ms Chesters has once again urged the Treasurer to expand the wage subsidy.
"Those in arts and entertainment, casuals, universities and local council are just some of the workers who don't qualify for JobKeeper," Ms Chesters said.
Central Victoria's diverse range of industries is one of the regions advantages, according to Ms Chesters.
"We are not a regional area disproportionally reliant on hospitality and retail to survive," she said.
A range of industries were surveyed including hospitality and tourism (20 per cent), retail (17 per cent) and manufacturing (14 per cent).
Jacqueline Brodie-Hanns has owned Castlemaine's Shedshaker brewery and taproom for four years.
Ms Brodie-Hanns said her business has lost scores of customers in the past two months.
"We've lost 85 per cent of our customers because we supply to pubs, cafes, restaurants and bars," she said.
Shedshaker employed 13 staff prior to the pandemic and now employs eight.
To have staff paid the JobKeeper wage subsidy, employers were required to pay staff from April 1.
This coincided with Shedshaker's major sales downturn.
Ms Brodie-Hanns is critical of the way the JobKeeper program was communicated to businesses.
"By the end of April, we needed to have paid $27,000 to staff," Ms Brodie-Hanns said.
"It was at exactly the time we had no income.
"There was confusion and mixed messages about what was expected of the employer and the employee receiving the wage subsidy."
Ms Chesters said the survey findings allow her to lobby for the best outcomes for central Victoria.
