Coronavirus: What Scott Morrison’s $66bn stimulus means for you

Scott Morrison’s $66bn rescue package doubles welfare payments, gives people access to super and offers small businesses incentives to keep staff.

Scott Morrison speaks at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: AFP

Welfare payments will be doubled, people will be allowed to access their superannuation, and small businesses will be given incentives to keep staff as Scott Morrison unveiled his $66bn coronavirus rescue package on Sunday.

The Prime Minister and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg outlined a suite of fiscal measures aimed at cushioning the blow from the coronavirus downturn as non-essential services look to set to be shut and businesses already start to falter.

Mr Morrison warned that Sunday’s rescue package would not be the last and that more needed to be done to ensure businesses and jobs stay afloat amid a global outbreak.

“This is focusing on those who are going to feel the first blows. They will be more packages and more support,” he said at Parliament House in Canberra.

“There will be more issues that even now have not presented themselves or could not even be conceived at this point with what we may face over the next six months, and we will be working night and day to ensure we bring forward the measures Australia needs to get them on this bridge to the recovery on the other side.”

The Treasurer also warned that the economic situation, domestically and globally, was more perilous than previously thought.

“Since the government announced its first stimulus package just over a week ago, the global and the domestic economic environment has deteriorated,” Mr Frydenberg said.

“We now expect the economic shock to be deeper, wider and longer. Every arm of government and industry is working to keep Australians in jobs and businesses in business and to build a bridge to recovery on the other side.”

Here is the Morrison government’s economic rescue package and what it will mean for you and your family:

RESCUE PACKAGE – MARCH 22 2020: $66.1BN

SUPPORT FOR INDIVIDUALS

Welfare: $18.1bn

● Welfare recipients receive an extra $550 a fortnight on top of their current benefits, essentially doubling the dole.

● Coronavirus supplement time-limited for next six months.

● Waiting times and asset tests for JobSeeker Payment waived.

● Extra one-off $750 payment for welfare recipients and veterans, on top of the $750 announced for them in the last round of stimulus measures.

Superannuation: $1.2bn

● Jobseekers, casuals and sole traders will be able to access their superannuation funds.

● People can apply to access up to $10,000 before July 1, 2020. Another $10,000 in the three months after that.

● Minimum superannuation drawdown rates for retirees and others reduced by 50 per cent till 2021.

Deeming rates: $876m

● Deeming rates lowered in line with the Reserve Bank’s emergency rates cut.

● Expected to benefit up to 900,000 pensioners.

SUPPORT FOR EMPLOYERS: $31.9BN

Jobs payments

● Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to get up to $100,000 to keep staff in jobs.

● Payment linked to business to 100 per cent of tax businesses withhold from staff’s wages: the more staff you have, the more money you get back.

● Businesses with turnovers of up to $50m and charities eligible.

Cash flow for SMEs

● Cash flow injection into small businesses from last stimulus package boosted.

● Minimum payment rises from $2000 to $10,000. Maximum payment from $25,000 to $50,000.

WIDER SUPPORT FOR BUSINESSES

SME loan guarantee: $20bn

● Federal government will guarantee 50 per cent of loans to small businesses.

● Government guarantee will support up to $40bn of banks’ lending to SMEs.

Insolvency and bankruptcy

● Threshold for creditors to take action raised from $2000 to $20,000.

● Businesses will have six months, instead of 21 days — to respond to creditors.