Scott Morrison urges businesses to sign up for JobKeeper, with changes coming to extend support
JobKeeper will be reworked so support continues to flow for Victorian businesses, as the federal government supports isolating workers and Victoria promises $5000 grants for affected businesses.
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Businesses forced to close in Victoria’s stage four shutdown are being urged to sign up for JobKeeper wage subsidies as the scheme is reworked to ensure support continues to flow after September.
Scott Morrison and Daniel Andrews are working on further aid for affected industries after the Premier unveiled a $600m package of $5000 grants for companies impacted by the sweeping restrictions.
The commonwealth has also implemented a $1500 pandemic disaster payment for anyone forced to self-isolate for 14 days without income support.
Australian residents and citizens will be eligible, meaning Victoria’s existing $1500 self-isolation payment will now only be directed to those on visas.
About $100m worth of JobKeeper payments are already supporting about 975,000 Victorian workers every week, and the Prime Minister encouraged others businesses now needing support to sign up.
The fortnightly $1500 payment is due to be cut to $1200 after September, but Mr Morrison said the federal government was “making further assessments of that”.
After September, businesses are only eligible if their turnover has dropped by at least 30 per cent in the June quarter and the September quarter.
Josh Frydenberg indicated those rules would be tweaked so that businesses shut down for the first time now would still be eligible later in the year
“We don’t want businesses that have been really badly hit through the September period but maybe not have met the 30 percent threshold in the June period, we want to make sure we can get support to them as well,” the Treasurer said.
The JobSeeker unemployment benefit will remains at a doubled rate of $1100 until the end of September, and mutual obligation requirements — such as looking for jobs — will be suspended for Victorians.
When Melbourne’s initial six-week lockdown started last month, $5000 payments from the state government were delivered to businesses forced to close, such as restaurants, gyms and beauty salons.
That will now be extended to businesses impacted by the imposition of stage three restrictions in regional areas, and Mr Andrews said further $5000 grants would also be paid to Melbourne businesses hit by the stage four rules.
“They will have been under these restrictions now for a period significantly longer than the first six weeks,” he said.
Already $776m has been paid to 77,000 businesses which received a $10,000 grant in the government’s business support fund set up in the first wave of the pandemic.
Mr Frydenberg said the unprecedented shutdown was “a massive kick in the guts to Victorian businesses”.
“We’re talking to the Victorian government about what more needs to be done, and it’s very important that that load is shared,” he said.
“We do think there’s a need to do more.”
The federal government’s budget update, released last month, estimated Melbourne’s six-week lockdown would blow a $3.3bn hole in the economy.
The Herald Sun understands Treasury is now preparing a new assessment of the economic impact of the stage four shutdown.
Mr Andrews said he had given Mr Morrison a commitment that economic support for businesses and workers would be a “joint effort”.
The Premier said Victoria would not necessarily match the commonwealth dollar for dollar, but that state-based support measures would be designed to work in concert with extra federal aid.
Mr Morrison said the new restrictions would be “another devastating blow” for Victorian businesses. He said the commonwealth was still working with Victoria on the implications of the changes.
“There will be some frustration and further clarity that will need to be provided,” Mr Morrison said.
His announcement of the pandemic disaster payment came after a joint lobbying effort from unions and businesses, although Australian Council of Trade Unions boss Sally McManus warned it was not enough.
“This payment will mean that nearly all full-time workers who are forced to rely on it will take a pay cut while they isolate,” she said.
“We need a new, temporary, paid leave entitlement.”
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