Prime Minister
A new jointly funded package from the Commonwealth and Victorian Governments will give Victorian small and medium businesses the extra support and confidence they need to recover from the recent lockdown.
The new Victorian Business Support Package will deliver an additional $400 million in support to thousands of businesses, with funding to be split 50/50 between the Commonwealth and Victorian Government.
The package includes a new $85 million Small Business COVID Hardship Fund and $156 million Business Continuity Fund, as well as delivering support for commercial tenants and landlords.
It will also build on Victorian Government support for licenced hospitality and alpine venues, with $70 million for the Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund 2021 and $9.8 million for Alpine Business Support.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Source: AAP/Lukas Coch.
The federal government has confirmed a new suite of support payments available to businesses in both New South Wales and Victoria, as Sydney enters an additional four weeks of lockdown, and Victorian businesses start to open up.
In New South Wales, the JobSaver program has been extended, with the maximum weekly payment for businesses increased from $10,000 per week to $100,000.
The turnover threshold for eligibility has also been increased from $50 million to $250 million.
Businesses that have seen a dip in turnover of 30% or more will be eligible for funding to cover 40% of their payroll. They will only be eligible if they do not reduce headcount.
Victorian businesses will be entitled to further financial assistance as the state s lockdown is extended another week.
Minister for Industry and Support Martin Pakula made said the most recent support package was work more than $280 million. We are announcing an additional $282.5 million in new cash grants for businesses affected by the seven-day lockdown extension, he said.
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Minister for Industry Support and Recovery Martin Pakula has announced a 282.5 million support package for Victorian business due to the latest lockdown.(Nine) That brings to $484 million, the total support for businesses and sole traders over the 12 days of this lockdown period.
Foley said the state government’s decision to isolate the secondary contacts of primary close contacts of Covid-19 cases was paying off, with half of the new infections reported on Wednesday being household contacts of primary close contacts.
Over 18,000 primary close contacts and over 10,000 secondary close contacts are currently isolating across the state.
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“If Victoria wasn’t managing those secondary close contacts as tightly as we are now, the advice that we have is that this virus would have got beyond us already. It has not,” Foley said.