Business leaders urge residents to get Covid-19 jab to end lockdowns

Queenslanders whose income or work hours are cut by the southeast’s latest lockdown will be able to claim financial relief. It comes as shattered business leaders beg residents to get vaccinated.

Queenslanders whose income or hours of work have been impacted by the lockdown will be able to claim Covid-19 disaster payments.

It comes as business leaders plead for Queenslanders to get vaccinated, saying it’s the only way to end ‘death by a thousand cuts’ lockdowns.

Southeast Queensland has been plunged into its fourth snap lockdown this year in another devastating blow for battered businesses.

The harshest lockdown since the pandemic began was announced on Saturday morning as cafes, restaurants, pubs and clubs across the southeast began peak weekend trade.

The snap, three-day stay-at-home order plunged the tourism and hospitality industries into turmoil, forcing mass cancellations at hotels and resorts, restaurants and function venues which had to lay off staff and bin tens of thousands of dollars worth of produce.

Queensland Tourism Industry Council CEO Daniel Gschwind said tourism operators were already reeling from lockdowns in the southern states and last week’s hard border closure with NSW.

Tourism Queensland CEO Daniel Gschwind says businesses are both financially and emotionally exhausted. Picture: News Corp/Attila Csaszar

“Even before this (lockdown) announcement today, we already found ourselves, as an industry, in an absolutely desperate situation – probably at the lowest point since this whole crisis began,” he said.

“You have to bear in mind that (tourism) businesses are emaciated from a year-and-a-half of struggle. Their resources are exhausted, both financially and emotionally.

“We really need the state and federal governments to step up to ensure that we can maintain the structure of our industry, because many businesses are at risk of closure.”

Queensland Chamber of Commerce and Industry executive Amanda Rohan said she supported the “circuit-breaker” of a short, sharp lockdown but it did not ease the pain of businesses who were “on the precipice”.

“This is the fourth lockdown we’ve had (since the start of the year) and it’s death by a thousand cuts,” she said.

Ms Rohan said it was critical that a planned support package revealed by the State Government yesterday contained enough “meat on the bone” to help businesses survive.

Queensland Hotels Association boss Bernie Hogan said the latest lockdown was “bitterly disappointing” just as pubs started to recover.

He said staff had lost work and hotels had to throw out “huge” amounts of perishable food.

“We really are at the mercy of people who don’t toe the line (on Covid safety),” he said.

“People just have to go and get vaccinated because it’s the only way out of this. We’ve got to take lockdowns away as a policy response.”

Clubs Queensland CEO Kelly Egan said smaller community clubs which relied heavily on weekend trade would be hot hardest by the lockdown.

While he understood the latest Covid crisis was rapidly evolving, clubs were still caught out by the announcement of a snap lockdown on a Saturday morning.

“We didn’t have any advance notice which is a little bit disappointing,” he said.

On Saturday night, federal Minister for Emergency Management, National Recovery and Resilience Bridget McKenzie said: “Eligible people will receive $750 per week if they have lost 20 or more hours of work, and $450 per week if they have lost between eight and less than 20 hours of work, or a full day of work. People who currently receive an income support payment can also claim to receive an extra payment of $200 if they have lost more than eight hours of work and meet the other eligibility requirements for the Covid-19 Disaster Payment.”

Eligible people will be back-paid to the start of the lockdown under the scheme.