Coronavirus: Emergency tourism and hospitality aid to save 10,000 jobs

Large tourism, hospitality and recreation employers will be able to access the NSW government’s JobSaver subsidy scheme.

Nurse Kelie Lee, centre, prepares to administer the AstraZeneca vaccine at the Bankstown Sports Club in southwest Sydney on Wednesday. Picture: Reuters

The NSW government will unveil emergency plans to expand employment subsidies to hospitality and tourism businesses in a last-ditch effort to save 10,000 jobs.

Under the change, approved by the state’s crisis cabinet on Wednesday, large tourism, hospitality and recreation employers – with annual turnovers of up to $1bn – will be able to access the government’s JobSaver subsidy scheme.

The program, which provides financial aid based on pre-lockdown payroll costs, is currently limited to businesses with annual turnovers of $250m and below.

The expansion was approved as the state reported a record 919 Covid-19 cases, the highest one-day rise anywhere in the country since the start of the pandemic.

 Officials said while the case numbers continued to grow, placing strain on some Sydney hospitals, they were encouraged by the news that 32.9 per cent of the NSW population was now fully vaccinated and some 61.5 per cent had received their first dose, according to federal government data.

 The financial package is expected to be announced on Thursday along with a range of sweeteners and adjustments to Covid-19 restrictions agreed to by members of the crisis cabinet.

Deliberations extended for some hours on Wednesday and were understood to have canvassed options ranging from relaxing retail restrictions for the fully vaccinated living outside of 12 local government areas of heightened concern to a modest expansion of the “singles bubble” and schooling arrangements.

A lone woman wearing a mask at Blacktown Station, western Sydney. Picture: James Gourley

NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet did not return requests for comment when contacted by The Australian about the recalibration of his JobSaver scheme, which was introduced in July and, despite a troubled rollout, has provided ­payments to businesses equal to 40 per cent of their payroll costs.

The scheme was due to conclude at the end of August.

Until now, threshold limits have resulted in some of the nation’s largest hospitality and tourism employers excluded from receiving any assistance. According to data made available last week, some 260,000 applications for support had been made since the program was announced, of which 200,000 had been approved but which were still being paid

Details of the expanded payments, obtained by The Australian, outline plans for businesses with an annual turnover of up to $500m to receive instalments totalling $300,000 if they can demonstrate turnover losses of 50 per cent. Larger businesses with turnovers between $500m and $1bn will receive up to $500,000 in payments, provided they have experienced losses of 70 per cent due to the winter lockdown.

“These businesses are often large employers and are at increasing risk of letting employees go as the lockdown protracts,” a document outlining the package said.

“This expansion of the JobSaver scheme is expected to support more than 10,000 jobs.”

Restaurant and Catering Australia chief executive Wes Lambert said the package of payments was a relief for the sector. “Extending JobSaver to hospitality businesses up to $1bn is a huge win for the hospitality industry as we remain in this extended lockdown period,” he said. “This will allow many more of the larger businesses to make it through this crisis.”

Service NSW, which will administer the scheme, will devote two dedicated phone numbers to assist with business queries. The organisation suffered a meltdown of its call centres and weeks-long delays in issuing payments due to the recent deluge of applications.

The Berejiklian government is also expected to announce plans on Thursday in relation to face-to-face schooling, with some education leaders criticising the government for waiting too long to make its intentions clear.

Catholic Schools NSW chief executive Dallas McInerney said he had not been consulted on arrangements and added that it remained unclear what plans, if any, the government intended to announce.

“We cannot go into the weekend without knowing what the HSC looks like,” Mr McInerney told The Australian.

“We can’t have a return-to-school plan drawn up without the input of the school sector, not if the government wants it to work. The absence of concrete direction from the government on how the school sector should prepare and respond to the pandemic is having a toll both operationally on the schools and systems, but most concerningly on the students and families.”

NSW chief health officer Kerry Chant said the focus of the state’s vaccination effort would be on younger groups as officials attempt to stop the continued growth of cases.

“The modelling suggests if we can get the (16 to 39) group vaccinated, we will break the transmission chain,” Dr Chant said on Wednesday.