KAP Leader Robbie Katter has backed calls for small business support

Robbie Katter has backed calls for the Labor Government to provide support to small businesses hit by the snap lockdown.

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CALLS for financial support for small businesses have been backed by Katters Australian Party Leader Robbie Katter, after millions of Queenslanders, including in Townsville, were plunged into lockdown on Tuesday,

Mr Katter joined calls from the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland (CCIQ) for the Palaszczuk Labor Government to provide small businesses hit by the latest snap lockdown with a targeted financial stimulus package.

Mr Katter said other states and territories had provided state-based economic packages to small businesses so they could survive after suffering extreme revenue loss from COVID lockdowns.

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The CCIQ has called for payments of up to $25,000 for affected businesses to cover loss of stock and trade and support the reinstatement of business operations.

Mr Katter said the KAP agreed there was a need for financial support, but that it should be scaled according to demonstrated need.

He said it was unsustainable in the long-term for small businesses, and taxpayers through rescue packages, to absorb the financial impacts of unpredictable lockdowns.

“Small businesses are the backbone of our economy and don’t have the ability survive long-term economic pressure, especially pressure forced upon them by their own Government,” the Traeger MP said.

“When you drive through North Queensland, through Townsville and out west, you do not overwhelmingly see big business; you see hundreds of little shopfronts all run and staffed by locals in the community.

“We want to keep it that way, but they cannot sustain these hits on their own.”

A Townsville Enterprise survey has already found local businesses have been put under significant strain since Tuesday’s lockdown, with some anticipating the recovery from this week’s collapse in trade to take up to three months to recover from.

“The Government has not come forward with any packages, this is why I am joining the call by the CCIQ to make available a $25,000 financial stimulus support to small businesses suffering from the forced lockdown,” Mr Katter said.

Originally published as KAP Leader Robbie Katter has backed calls for small business support