Berejiklian government ministers at war over JobSaver failure
Two senior Berejiklian government ministers are blaming each other for failures arising out of the rollout of a financial aid package.
Two of the Berejiklian government’s most senior ministers are blaming each other for failures with the rollout of a financial support package for struggling businesses, with vast sums of money remaining unpaid and valid applications rejected due to confusion over the criteria.
The many complaints to Treasurer Dominic Perrottet and Customer Service Minister Victor Dominello about the program were raised at a meeting of the government’s expenditure review committee on Thursday night.
An official familiar with the talks said there was “lots of finger pointing” between the pair over why funding was failing to be released; they each agreed to relax the evidence required from businesses to meet the support criteria.
Comment has been sought from both ministers.
The matter has become so critical for the government that Premier Gladys Berejiklian called an urgent meeting with both ministers and others from her crisis cabinet on Friday to discuss how to improve the rollout.
Ms Berejiklian has said the financial payments would enable business owners and employees to stay home and reduce their mobility, without having anxiety and uncertainty around their financial position.
More than 175,000 businesses have applied for Covid-19 grants of up to $15,000, and JobSaver payments of up to $10,000 a week, which were designed to preserve employment and cover costs incurred by the Greater Sydney lockdown.
While billions of dollars were set aside to cover the program, just $435m has been approved for payment, with $282m paid out by Service NSW, the delivery arm of the program.
Companies facing mounting debts have reported waiting for the funding to flow, while others have said their applications for help were rejected on several times, even when they met the approval criteria.
Several government officials said these businesses were eligible to apply for the funding, but the criteria had been misunderstood by Service NSW representatives.
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