$100k for small businesses who cannot pay wages as virus spreads
Small and medium businesses struggling to pay wages will each receive $100,000 in a multibillion-dollar survival package to cushion the economic blow of the coronavirus.
NSW
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A multibillion-dollar survival package to cushion the economic blow of the coronavirus will see cash payments of up to $100,000 flow to small and medium businesses struggling to pay their wage bills.
From April 1 businesses will also be able to get $250,000 bank loans with a six-month repayment-free period.
The government will meet half the cost of the debt holiday, with the banks meeting the other half.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Saturday warned the pandemic would “get worse before it gets better”.
“We want to help businesses keep going as best they can or to pause instead of falling apart,” he said.
The total value of the government’s stimulus package is $189 billion — almost 10 per cent of Australia’s GDP — which also includes $17.6 billion announced for the first stage of measures and $105 billion in credit pumped into banks and lenders by the government and the Reserve Bank.
The latest cash handout plan is a dramatic increase on payments announced earlier this month for businesses with a turnover below $50 million.
Under the plan almost 700,000 small and medium businesses nationwide will now be able to keep 100 per of the tax they withhold from their employees wages, up to $100,000 — four times the current cap.
The payments will start flowing to small and medium sized business that employ about 2.5 million people in NSW from April 21.
The $250,000 loans will be guaranteed by taxpayers and available to businesses that want to use the money to expand, buy new equipment or cover bills.
Commonwealth Bank chief executive Matt Comyn backed the package and encouraged banks and governments to work together to “help businesses survive and keep people in jobs”.
“We can achieve an enormous amount quickly if government and business work hand-in-hand, quickly, with complete focus on getting things done to slow down the spread and minimise the impact of the virus,” Mr Comyn said.
More stimulus measures will be announced today including an expansion of the welfare safety net, relief for retirees living off their super and help for families.
A scaled-back parliament will be asked to pass the latest stimulus package as well as previously announced measures for businesses, welfare recipients and tourism operators when it resumes on Monday.
“There is a lot of pain coming but we’re going to cushion the blow as best we can,” Mr Morrison said.
“In the event that someone does regrettably lose their job because of the coronavirus it’s very important that business give their workers the confidence that this is just temporary.”
MORE CHANGES
The Morrison government has announced a series of measures to help casual workers, sole traders, retirees and those on income support as part of its second $66 billion stimulus package in the face of the coronavirus.
These include a new, time-limited coronavirus supplement to paid at a rate of $550 per fortnight to both existing and new recipients of the JobSeeker Payment, Youth Allowance jobseeker, Parenting Payment, Farm Household Allowance and Special Benefit.
This supplement will be paid for the next six months at a cost of $14.1 billion, Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said in a statement on Sunday.