Business support
Mr NORTHE (Morwell) (14:58): My question is to the Minister for Industry Support and Recovery. Minister, under the current COVID rules and restrictions there are still many regional businesses who are forced to remain closed. There are other regional businesses who have chosen to keep their doors closed because it is simply unviable to open, and then there are other businesses who are operating in a limited capacity but incurring a loss due to the COVID restrictions. Whichever way you look, each of these scenarios places regional businesses in a precarious position, as their revenue is compromised yet their overheads and costs simply do not go away. Minister, in a media statement on 8 September the state government announced that business support grants would continue to be paid out to regional businesses from 2 to 16 September. Can you confirm if regional businesses will receive state government financial assistance and support beyond today, 16 September, and if so, in what form?
Mr PAKULA (Keysborough—Minister for Industry Support and Recovery, Minister for Trade, Minister for Business Precincts, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Minister for Racing) (14:59): I thank the member for Morwell for his question. It is a very timely one. He is right; I did indicate in the last sitting week that we would have more to say this week, and we resolved that late last night and today. There are about 20 000 or 21 000 businesses in regional Victoria who receive support from either the business costs assistance program (BCAP) or the Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund. The majority of those businesses will receive support over the next two weeks. All of those who have been receiving Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund support will continue to do so until the end of the month, and that will just continue as an automatic payment.
In regard to the business costs assistance program it is a bit more complicated. There are businesses in industries which are clearly operating closer to normal, such as retail, such as gardening services or allied health. Those payments will not continue. But in the sectors where there are substantial ongoing restrictions, whether they be hospitality, beauty services, photographers, gyms, accommodation, the events sector, the creative sector or tourism operators, those BCAP payments will continue for the next two weeks. The Business Victoria website will have a full list of the Australian and New Zealand standard industrial classification codes where that is the case by tomorrow. In regard to the Small Business COVID Hardship Fund, which is operated by Minister Pulford, that is unaffected, and as it relates to the alpine support grants, where we have already indicated that there will be a final payment to take us up to close to the end of the ski season, that will also be unaffected. So in summary I say to the member for Morwell, the Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund, small business hardship fund and alpine support will all continue, and for the majority of BCAP recipients it will continue until the end of September as well. Obviously for Ballarat it continues for all of those regional businesses that have been receiving support until now.
Mr NORTHE (Morwell) (15:01): Minister, the current COVID restrictions are still heavily impacting regional businesses, including small and micro businesses, and subsequently that means that employees continue to lose income, work and shifts. Can you confirm if the COVID-19 disaster payments will be made available to employees of regional businesses, and what the state government is doing to work with the commonwealth in supporting employees of struggling regional businesses?
Mr PAKULA (Keysborough—Minister for Industry Support and Recovery, Minister for Trade, Minister for Business Precincts, Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events, Minister for Racing) (15:01): I thank the member for Morwell for this question. Again it is a timely question, and some very interesting things occurred yesterday, where a number of workers in regional Victoria received notices from Centrelink telling them that they had been cut off payments, which came as a great surprise to this government, given that the Premier’s office had conveyed to the Prime Minister’s office last week that the Victorian government was more than willing to continue to fund the payments for workers in regional Victoria. That had been conveyed both to the Prime Minister’s office and to the federal Treasurer’s office, so we were very surprised to learn yesterday that workers had received information from Centrelink telling them that payments would stop. Subsequently, upon investigations being made by the government, it seems that those workers will still be eligible, but they will have to reapply. It is unclear why that will be the case, but they will be able to reapply by the ‘I am impacted by a COVID-19 restricted movement/lockdown, but was not living, working or present in a COVID-19 hotspot area’ option on the Centrelink website.