‘Race against time’ to save Sydney CBD businesses: NSW Treasurer
NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet has told the 2020 Sydney Summer Summit of business leaders the state government is in a “race against time” to restore community confidence that it was safe to return to the city.
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NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet has told the 2020 Sydney Summer Summit of business leaders the state government is in a “race against time” to restore community confidence that it was safe to return to the city.
While declaring the government as not in a position to “force” workers back to the office, there was a need to spread the message to those wanting to come back that the city was “safe”.
“The message is – the city is as safe as the suburbs,” Mr Perrottet said.
“We are not talking about forcing people back in to the office. But let’s get those who want to come back. Encourage them to come back. Let’s get the city going again.”
Responding to a question about the four square metre rule in licensed venues, Mr Perrottet said the restrictions were in place to give businesses “certainty” although noted how he was working “closely” with NSW Health on whether changes might be made in the future.
Among those to participate in the summit included restaurateurs Luke Mangan and Neil Perry, Merivale boss Justin Hemmes and Lord Mayor Clover Moore.
Ms Moore outlined her vision for a “cultural al fresco outdoor summer” in Sydney with the council paying for musicians to play in restaurants and bars.
“We want to have a cultural alfresco outdoor summer reinvigoration of our beautiful city. The city would like to pay musicians to perform in restaurants and bars over a period of time. The bars have really suffered. They can’t afford to pay musicians. We could and we would. That would be fantastic.”
To ensure the city remained safe while instilling confidence in visitors, Ms Moore said masks should be given to those travelling on public transport.
Labor treasury spokesman Walt Secord said the Opposition stood ready to assist the government in reinvigorating Sydney, while also urging similar summits to be held across NSW.
“You can get real change in a crisis,” he said.
“The Opposition’s approach has been that if Dom and his government want to engage in reform, we stand ready to assist – and we exercise the option to criticise, but if you want to undertake genuine reform, we’re with you.
“I’d also like to see similar sessions to this held in Parramatta, and rural and regional areas, the Hunter and Wollongong.”
Other ideas put forward at the summit that the State government will investigate include setting up a semi-permanent stage in Martin Place where concerts can be hosted and allowing businesses to use their car spaces for chairs and tables to enable outdoor dining.
Discounts for public transport, payroll tax cuts and outdoor dining food trucks and setting up outdoor dining spaces around the Sydney Opera House forecourt were also put forward.
Liverpool COVID cluster grows; QLD opens border to ACT
Six new cases of COVID-19 were recorded in NSW to 8pm Thursday, including five returned travellers in hotel quarantine. The other case is linked to the Liverpool Hospital cluster.
The health department said the new locally acquired case had been isolating.
There are now 21 cases linked to the outbreak, deputy chief health officer Dr Jeremy McAnulty confirmed.
Meanwhile, Queensland will reopen to the ACT from next Friday, which the Deputy Premier has said would provide a welcome boost for the sunshine state’s tourism industry.
Steven Miles this morning urged Canberrans to think about coming up to Queensland for a holiday when the borders reopen at 1am next Friday.
This could open the way for Prime Minister Scott Morrison to take part in the Queensland state election campaign, and possibly attend the AFL Grand Final.
NSW TO TAKE 500 EXTRA OVERSEAS TRAVELLERS A DAY
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed that NSW, QLD and WA will all increase their intake of overseas travellers within the coming weeks.
“It was time to start lifting those caps and we made announcements about that earlier this week. I want to thank the NSW government for their very quick and prompt response to support those lifting the caps,” he said.
“Today we did get support for moving to those additional numbers but it will be done in a staged way.
“NSW will move to take an additional 500 by Monday week, so that’s 27 September.
“Queensland and Western Australia, on that same day, will be taking an additional 200 per week from 27 September. By 4 October, Queensland will then move to that 400-500 extra.
“So, they’ll increase it by 300 again. And by 11 October, WA will also go to that 500 extra a week. That will give those states additional time to get the quarantine arrangements in place.”
“These are Australians coming home, these are Western Australians coming home to Western Australia, they are Queenslanders coming home to Queensland,” Mr Morrison added.
“Now, New South Wales has been carrying the majority share and will continue to do that.
“They will go to 3000 a week from Monday week.
“About, I understand, 40 per cent of those who are coming through New South Wales are going on to other states and territories.”
The Prime Minister also flagged the possibility of a travel bubble between COVID-19 free areas of New Zealand and Australia.
“Another way we’ll be able to help more Australians get home is we’re working to ensure that New Zealanders can come to Australia, and Australians can return to Australia from New Zealand without the need to go through quarantine,” he said.
“If they’re not coming from an area where there is an outbreak of COVID-19, for example, the whole of the South Island, that’s an area where there is no COVID.”
New South Wales will have pandemic leave disaster payments made available soon, the Prime Minister added.
“I can also note that not only has Victoria, Tasmania and Western Australia taken up the COVID pandemic leave disaster payment but that is also now to be taken up by New South Wales, and those arrangements will be put in place over the next little while,” he said.
“That ensures that, when someone has a positive COVID test, they can get access to those payments and I believe Queensland will follow shortly.”
VICTORIA RECORDS 45 NEW CASES, FIVE DEATHS
Victoria has recorded 45 new coronavirus cases and five deaths in the past day.
The average daily case number for metropolitan Melbourne has dropped to 42.7, meaning the city is on track to a scheduled easing of restrictions.
Metropolitan Melbourne must reach an average daily case rate of between 30 and 50 cases over the preceding fortnight to trigger an easing of lockdown measures from September 28.
On Thursday, the state recorded just 28 cases.
QLD BORDERS COULD OPEN ‘IN WEEKS’
Queensland’s borders could open to NSW within weeks, according to one of the country’s leading tourism figures.
Flight Centre boss Graham Turner said Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk would be left with no other choice but to open up as other Australian jurisdictions start to ease their border controls.
“I’m pretty sure that the borders – the NSW border with Queensland will open within the next three or four weeks. I don’t know that for sure. But it seems logical,” he told the Today show on Friday morning.
“The only thing that will stop it I believe is a serious outbreak in NSW somewhere.
“There’s got to be a good reason. If there’s a very good reason, safety, health, but I think that’s done and dusted now. That’s over. So I think pragmatism will reign and I’m pretty confident the borders will open because I don’t think there is any choice.”
Mr Turner said the tourism industry was “suffering”, particularly on the Gold Coast and in North Queensland.
“They do all right at the weekends, you know, from the Brisbane traffic, but during the week, it is absolutely dead,” he said.
“Everyone’s suffering. Travel, tourism, airline, airports, it’s a bit of a disaster.”
SURPRISE REBOUND FOR NEW ECONOMY
NSW has defied doomsday predictions to make an astonishing economic bounce-back, outshining the rest of the nation, as the federal government hints income tax cuts are coming.
Unemployment in NSW has fallen to 6.7 per cent after 51,500 jobs returned in August — meaning the state is doing better than Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia and South Australia despite being the hardest hit economy during the initial COVID-19 lockdown.
Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said he was surprised by the jobs figures released on Thursday, which showed unemployment fell 0.7 per cent to 6.8 per cent nationally, despite widespread expectation it would creep upwards.
But he also acknowledged a lot of Australians were still hurting, indicating the Budget to be unveiled in about two weeks would include major stimulus measures.
There are $158 billion in tax cuts due to start from mid-next year, and to be continued in mid-2024, which he would not rule out bringing forward.
“We’re considering the time of those tax cuts,” he said.
“You will have to turn on at 7.30pm on October 6 (budget night) to see what our tax plan is, but we are focused on lowering the tax burden for Australians.”
Despite the promising unemployment figures, the “effective” rate, which includes people who have stopped looking for work, dropped slightly to 9.3 per cent.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said this higher figure was the one Australians “should be watching”.
“It was falling before the Victorian wave hit us. And with Victoria opening up again, we would expect that to see that fall again,” he said.
Mr Morrison said the JobKeeper bill was currently about $11 billion a month, with announcements to come on how the phasing out of the scheme would work.
“There are a lot of other things we also need to invest in for Australia’s growth,” he said.
“Keeping the Australian economy on life support through those types of payments is not a long-term plan.
“It’s been an essential lifeline. It’s there till the end of March. And in the budget in a few weeks’ time, we’ll be announcing a lot of new plans.”
Nationally youth unemployment also remained stubbornly high at 14.3 per cent.
Young people aged 15 to 24 accounted for 333,200 of Australia’s job losses in the first wave of the pandemic, with recovery initially strong in June but tapering to just 28,800 positions created in August.
Nationally women were the biggest losers in the jobs market in April and May when the economy shut down, losing 470,500 positions compared to 401,100 among men.
But the bounceback has also been greater for women, with 57 per cent of those jobs lost now recovered, compared to 47 per cent for men.
Labor leader Anthony Albanese said now was “not the time” to be cutting JobKeeper payments, which are due to drop from $1500 a fortnight to $1100 for full-time and $750 for part-time workers from the end of September.
“The reason why JobKeeper was a good idea, to keep relations between employers and employees, is very much still there,” he said.
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