NSW Government only approve 493 small business grants a month after devastating floods
A shockingly low number of small business grants have been approved by the NSW Government, as north coast businesses cry out for support.
Regional News
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A measly five per cent of the 8000 applications submitted for NSW Government financial assistance for small businesses have been approved — a month on from devastating floods that destroyed thousands of homes and businesses on the state’s north coast.
Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello revealed on Thursday a total of 1293 applications had been “finalised and approved for payment or deemed ineligible” by Service NSW, despite government teams having the “capacity to process around 600 applications a day”.
According to the Service NSW Performance Dashboard, a total of 803 applications were declined with a value of $14.5 million, while just 493 applications were approved with a total value of $7 million.
Mr Dominello said he expected around half of all applications would be approved by the NSW Government in response to continued deluges that has seen the Northern Rivers rocked by more flooding.
The Minister said the other 50 per cent would be outside the eligibility criteria for financial assistance, based on recent funding data.
“We do have an obligation to ensure that taxpayers money is not blindly been paid to fraudsters and criminal syndicates,” Mr Dominello said.
“We’ve seen that natural disasters bring out the angels in our community — thank God for that — but they also bring out vermin, vermin that seek to exploit the system.”
Mr Dominello confirmed the Service NSW assistance team, made up of a team of 62, could process 600 applications a day.
Meanwhile the NSW Government’s flood recovery rental support payment has seen just 334 applications approved out of a total of 1705.
A total of 258 applications were refused, while 1113 are still under assessment.
The rental support program aims to provide a one-off payment for residents who are “unable to live in their home due to the February and March 2022 storms and floods”.
Payments range from $6000 for one person to $18,000 for six people from one household.
Shadow Customer Service spokeswoman Yasmin Catley said the Minister needed to increase resources to “get money into people’s bank accounts”.
“It’s been 4 weeks since Lismore experienced flooding that has virtually destroyed their small businesses, and again the support has been painfully slow and unnecessarily difficult to access,” Ms Catley said.
“The Minister has form in this space, he was responsible for overseeing the Government’s COVID-19 Business Support Program which left businesses waiting weeks and months for support to arrive, in fact I am still contacted by businesses awaiting for payments to be processed.
“That simply cannot be allowed to happen again to the applicants for flood support.”
Lismore business owner Tracey Randall, of Randall Legal, said the way the grants were structured — which sees businesses required to spend money before they receive government support — is making things difficult on the ground.
“We are required to loan money to then obtain those assistance packages from the government,” she said. “The application process is long and we don’t have that time when we are continued to be threatened by floodwaters once again.”
Ms Randall said she has spent more than $20,000 in a matter of days to revive her legal firm.
“I am putting staff on planes in an effort to get drying equipment back from Newcastle and Brisbane,” she said. “However, a lot of other businesses are in a lot worse condition than mine, and they need that government support now.”
The small business owner said the government needed to be reminded that people in Lismore and across the North Coast were “dealing with the everyday struggles of life — while we face a major catastrophy without the financial support of the government to revive our businesses”.
“It is beginning to get very lonely, we are relying on the work of the Courier Mail which has been providing us with support and volunteer assistance, which is something the government should be doing,” she said.
“We have fractured hearts, we are broken.”
Meanwhile, a Lismore Chamber of Commerce member said businesses were facing a “soul-destroying battle to survive”.
“Business owners are frustrated, confidence is at an all time low, their businesses have been wiped out — it looks like a bomb has been dropped on Lismore,” he said.
“Nothing is happening in Lismore, there is no economy.
“Around 100 out of the 2000 local businesses in Lismore are actually operating right now — there is no commercial activity in town.”
The Chamber of Commerce member said the “lifeblood of Lismore is gone, sucked right out of the community”.
“We need financial support and disaster relief, but we don’t know where it will come from or when,” he said. “We are trying to help business get back on their feet by providing assistance and local services.
“We need the money and we need to get it as fast as we can but there is no point criticising the government, we have no where to go without their support.”
Originally published as NSW Government only approve 493 small business grants a month after devastating floods
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