Coronavirus Qld: 85k expected to lose their jobs

Upwards of 85,000 Queenslanders could be out of work today amid the unprecedented social distancing measures that will force businesses to shut their doors.

UPWARDS of 85,000 Queenslanders could be out of work today amid the unprecedented social distancing measures that have forced businesses to shut their doors.

A further crackdown forcing even more businesses such as amusement parks, beauty salons and tattoo parlours to close from midnight last night came as a shock to Queensland businesses this week.

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Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland general manager policy and advocacy Amanda Rohan told The Courier-Mail the short time frames which businesses had to abide by, in terms of incoming regulations, was hard.

“It is happening very quickly,” she said.

“Last night (Tuesday) the announcement was quite a shock to those businesses that were impacted.”

Ms Rohan said because the announcements of business closures were being delivered in a staged approach, many businesses were sitting back and going, “What’s next?”

“It’s really tough out there,” she said.

“Our staff are fielding calls from businesses in tears.

“Information is key at the moment.”

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said yesterday there was a safety net for unemployed Australians.

“There's the safety net … and that's what it is,” he said.

“And we've doubled the safety net and we've broadened the safety net to capture as many as we can and if we need to go further than we will, I've made that very clear.

“We've provided the support to businesses so they can keep people on wherever they can.

“But in many cases, that won't be possible because they may be running a business that has had to be shut down.

“And so in those circumstances, what we're focusing on is making the safety net as strong as we possibly can.”

About 2.6 million Australians logged in to myGov yesterday.

The previous busiest day for myGov was during the July 2019 tax time period, where the peak was 1.8 million logins in one single day.

Government Services Minister Stuart Robert yesterday said the Government was discouraging people from visiting Centrelink centres.

It comes after massive queues were seen around the country as thousands of unemployed people tried to access financial assistance from the Government.

Prime Minister Morrison has announced an extra 5000 staff to deal with demand with more than 1500 of those to start on Monday.