Bill Lang radio interview on 3AW with Tony Moclair
“CBD stands for Central Business District, not Central Bike District.” – Bill Lang, Executive Director, Small Business Australia.
On-air with Tony Moclair, Bill Lang discussed revelations that 10% of Melbourne’s $100M City Recovery Fund, designed to support small businesses post-pandemic, was redirected to build bike lanes.
This decision, made without public consultation, has left small businesses questioning:
- Where’s the evidence that bike lanes are driving economic recovery?
- How does reducing parking and road access help businesses struggling to bounce back?
While bike lanes may offer convenience for some, they’ve also created confusion and accessibility challenges for others. Many are asking if this was the best use of ratepayer funds.
As the new City of Melbourne administration takes charge, there’s hope for a fresh approach to decision-making. It’s time for transparency, accountability, and solutions that balance the needs of businesses, ratepayers, and commuters alike.

Radio transcript.
Tony Moclair 00:00
Bike lanes. I saw this. My wife and I were driving along Heidelberg Road in Clifton Hill, kind of near the Collingwood Leisure Centre, which for some reason, is called the Collingwood Leisure Centre, even though it’s strictly speaking not but it’s the athletics track. There are bike lanes. Pop Up bike lanes, we were told by the council, pop up, implying that they wouldn’t be there for long. They’ve been there for the best part of four years, of course. But imagine my surprise when I saw two blokes on motorbikes on the bike lane. Have you seen that? Is that a more common thing, or is that just a one off, 133 693, and speaking of bike lanes, not far from people’s minds. The Herald Sun has revealed today that a $100 million recovery scheme aimed to kick start the City economy post pandemic by paying for events and helping businesses, was instead put towards completing street projects. Of that $100 million city Recovery Fund, 10% of it was diverted to construct bike lanes, bike lanes that nobody were consulted about. No, certainly nobody demanded, it would seem, but built they were and the money was taken from, as I said, a fund that was designed to help small businesses, the people who had created that money by paying their rates in the first place. 133 693, do you think that’s a fair use of the council’s money or taxpayers money? Have you used those bike lanes in the city? Has there been any uptick at all? We were told that there was a rise in bike use. I do have a vague memory of it during the pandemic. But do you agree with that allocation of resources by the council, and if you run a business in the CBD, tell us, years on, what is the net effect of those bike paths? 133 693, and if you’ve seen anybody misusing bike lanes, pedals, fine, but e scooters and motorbikes. I was stunned when I saw this. They had helmets on the whole works. And there they work, bold as brass on the bike paths, joining me on the line now, 133 693 if you’d like to weigh in. Bill Lang, Executive Director Small Business Australia, good afternoon. Bill.
Bill Lang 02:14
Hello Tony. Welcome back and thank you and happy New Year.
Tony Moclair 02:17
Same to you. Same to you. Well, 10% of this $100 million recovery scheme could have been very useful to some businesses in the CBD. So what instead, it appears to me, the Council have taken money that was intended for small business and then constructed something with it that impinges small businesses ability to do small business.
Bill Lang 02:37
It certainly seems that way Tony and congratulations to the team at the Herald Sun. It’s taken them a year of fighting through a Freedom of Information request to finally get 1000 pages back to then show that 10% of it went on capital works building more bike lane infrastructure, which no one’s pointed to, well, where’s the fact based evidence from the ratepayers and the business operators that that would be a contribution to helping them get back on their feet after the disastrous three years of lockdowns and everything else that took place.
Tony Moclair 03:10
Lockdowns that were very supported by the City of Melbourne, of course, and Sally Capp, who was in at the time, tell us what bike lanes have done to businesses in the CBD. What’s what’s been the anecdotal effect, as far as you can tell.
Bill Lang 03:23
Well, it operates on a few levels, Tony. There’s the general confusion and reluctance of many people that, in the past, would have driven into the CBD, found a convenient park, gone to a book shop, you know, gone out for an event. So there’s a bunch of people that just aren’t coming in as a result of what are they going to find? Where can they go? Where can they park? So that’s the first thing. Second thing is, it takes up a whole bunch of space. You know, what was in the past, either parking or road use that is quite heavily used these days, between on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, the top days, you know, first thing in the morning and at the end of the day for those office workers that are still coming in and riding their bikes in and provides a very safe environment. I have an electric bike. I find them fantastic to actually get from my place in Carlton to the MCG, yeah. So play, play a really good role there, but it takes a lot of again, travel and parking space, and then again, if you look at the bike riders, those that are working in the city, you don’t often see them carrying dry cleaning home or carrying any shopping home. So at the end of the day, it’s CBD, B is for business, not bike lanes, and that’s where we’ve ended up.
Tony Moclair 04:25
There is a new administration in City Hall, if you want to use an American term for it. Have they signaled any intention to either roll back the number of bike lanes planned or to indeed return roads to their intended use, which is for cars.
Bill Lang 04:43
This will be a wonderful test, I think, for the new council. And you know, whereas in the past, we had a number of Councilors who were putting their professional development and career progression in their political party first, as opposed to the oath that they’d taken to make rational decisions in the interests of the ratepayers of the City of Melbourne, and looking at some positive signs we saw during the council campaign. You know, the then Lord Mayor, I think he had a six month run before the election. You know, he and the majority of the council has take a stand on the hire scooters and the hire bike. So that’s a positive sign. But I think this is a real test, right? Because there have been admissions made by members of the council around they’d gone too far. In some cases, hadn’t been thought through. But it’s like, Well, okay, what are you going to do about them now? Let’s, let’s wind them back like exhibition Street is a classic example. The the octopus of bike lanes there has been strangling many of the businesses that operate there for a number of years. And surely it’s a new team. There’s some more rational, grown up people now on the council, there’s 11 in total. It only takes six out of the 11 to start voting in some common sense things to get the balance right.
Tony Moclair 05:50
Ethically, you can say taking 10% of a fund that’s dedicated to revitalising business is what is it a grey area, or has some some punishable wrongdoing occurred here
Bill Lang 06:03
During the pandemic I used to say, Tony, I’m not an epidemiologist, and I’m certainly not going to I’m certainly not a lawyer, practicing lawyer, but I think there’s a good point here around many people are losing faith and confidence in what we’re hearing from our ruling political class in terms of what they say versus what they do, and for it to take a whole year to tell us, there would have been papers written by the executive team around how the money should be spent. They would have made recommendations. Let’s be a bit more transparent about all of this, because at the end of the day, it’s, it’s what you do that counts. You want to rebuild trust in political leadership. You know, start saying what you’re going to do and then doing what you’re going to say.
Tony Moclair 06:39
What a great way of putting it. And I think the fires in LA are a great example of that, the disconnect between the rulers and the ruled and when government fails. So thank you for your time, as always. Bill Lang, Executive Director of Small Business Australia.
Bill Lang 06:53
Thank you Tony.