Coronavirus Gold Coast: Business leaders fear more jobs could be lost despites $130b package

Thousands of jobs are set to be saved by the Federal Government’s $130 billion wage subsidy but even more may be lost on the Gold Coast.

GOLD Coast’s tourism boss is urging Prime Minister Scott Morrison to widen whopping $1500-a-fortnight Jobkeeper handouts to casuals who don’t have a year’s service racked up.

The Federal Government unveiled the unprecedent $130 billion scheme on Monday, giving a six-month wages lifeline to six million workers.

By last night 200,000 Australian firms had registered.

The flat rate of $1500 a fortnight is for full and part timers but casuals can get it only if they have been with the same employer for 12 months.

Destination Gold Coast CEO Annaliese Battista said almost a third of city’s workforce was casual, significantly more than other cities.

Annaliese Battista. Picture: Mike Batterham

She welcomed the scheme but said many Coast workers would not be eligible because of the 12-month service requirement: “This is the level of support we were hoping for. It will provide support to thousands of Gold Coasters stood down and the more people we can keep employed through this, the more of our economy survives this intact.

“However, the Gold Coast has unique needs as a tourism city and relies more than most on casual workers, many whom will not have the 12 months behind them to get this. This will particularly affect the hospitality industry and I would hope that element is reviewed.”

Theme Park giant Village Roadshow which stood down 5000 staff has applied to be part of the scheme while a spokesman for Dreamworld operator Ardent Leisure said it was investigating eligibility.

Payments won’t kick in until the first week of May but are backdated to this week.

Darren Winmill, who runs Bundall-based Omni Recruit, has 15 permanent staff as well as hundreds of casuals in warehousing and hospitality, many who did not have 12 months regular service.

“With hospitality, because they are transient they will come on and come off,” he said. “We had people who joined us three months ago and clients laying off staff. They will not have any luck because they have not been with us 12 months.”

He would look to get a $250,000 Federal Government loan to try and keep the business afloat until early May.

A Star spokesman said it registered for JobKeeper and was awaiting ATO “advice”.

“We had to suspend operations at three properties when non-essential indoor venues were captured. The human impact has been considerable.”

Star stood down 2250 on the Gold Coast. It offered staff two weeks’ paid “pandemic” leave on top of normal leave, which drew union praise.

Star staff are also allowed to draw down on their annual leave and other entitlements, which for many will help bridge them through to May 1 when the backdated JobKeeper payments will kick in.

The Australian Childcare Alliance general manager Brent Stokes said the announcement would not be enough to keep the doors open to centres “on the brink of collapse”.

He said occupancy was done between 20 and 60 per cent for most centres, with some seeing a drop of 90 per cent. Many parents had withdrawn their children out of fear of being made unemployed and unable to pay the cost.

“We want to encourage the government to implement immediate short-term measures to get through the next four to five weeks,” he said.

“What we are asking the government to do is pay the childcare subsidy without the requirement for the parent to pay the gap (between the total cost and government subsidy) just in the short term to alleviate those cash flow issues.”

He said centres are playing a vital role during the pandemic by caring for vulnerable children and the children of health care workers who would “not be forced to look after their otherwise health young children”.

Gold Coast Central Chamber of Commerce president Martin Hall said the package would save thousands of jobs on the Gold Coast and help provide greater security for business owners.

“It is great to see the Federal Government has taken this brave step to combat the economic illness that is connected to fighting the spread of COVID-19 in Australia,” he said.