MBRIT chairman Shane Newcombe urges the community to support those local businesses still open

Local business community pulls together to support each other in the face of strict coronavirus restrictions.

A MORETON BAY business leader says the impact of coronavirus restrictions has been heartbreaking with significant job losses and many businesses forced to close.

Over the past two weeks, the federal government has imposed increasingly strict measures to slow the spread of the deadly virus, including shutting down much of the “non-essential” events and tourism sector.

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Moreton Bay Region Industry and Tourism (MBRIT) chairman Shane Newcombe said many local businesses had closed this week as a consequence of the restrictions.

Though he said people were reaching out to support one another through the crisis.

“The impact on the tourism and hospitality business in Moreton Bay is heartbreaking,” Mr Newcombe said.

“Though it has been overwhelming to see the general shift on social media over the past few days with a massive influx of people reaching out to support one another during this catastrophic time.”

He said the situation would end in the future so long as the community followed the restriction in place.

“There is no room for compromise if we want to see the end of this crisis,” he said.

“We will get through this and begin to rebuild our economy and business community.

“Many of our restaurants and cafes have introduced take away and home delivery services as an attempt to remain open and retain staff.

“We can only urge the community to support these businesses at this time if you can.”

MSK Events owner Kirstin Calder, who owns the North Lakes markets and holds other events in the region, said the restrictions had been devastating to her small family business.

“Absolutely all our events and markets have had to be cancelled or postponed,” he said.

“This obviously affects our income, but also the income of the small business vendors that rely on these events.

“The uncertainty going forward is the hardest part.

“At this stage, not knowing when we can schedule in events, as well as the fact that every other event business will be wanting to hold their events at the same time, means that there is no guarantee to start back up as strong as we were.”

MBRIT last week closed its visitor information centres and, like many other organisations, has implemented social distancing measures and has employees working from home.

“Like many businesses, our immediate concern has been to ensure the general health, mental health and wellbeing of our staff and volunteers is managed,” Mr Newcombe said.

Last week, it provided an employee assistance program to its tourism and hospitality businesses.

The program allowed employers and employees the opportunity to access free short-term counselling for business, financial or personal needs.

“We have seen an overwhelming response to this program with over 3000 people now eligible to access this service in the region,” Mr Newcombe said.

He said there had been some confusion around the state and federal government stimulus packages available but felt the governments were doing their best.

“Considering the escalating impact of the crisis, I think the government will have no choice other than to expand stimulus and I look forward to seeing what additional support to businesses, and households, will be made available in coming weeks,” he said.

People can visit MBRIT’s Business Moreton Bay Region website which has been dedicated to providing information to businesses, including its employee assistance program.