Coronavirus: Restaurant industry’s $3bn bid to survive eat-out drought

Victorians need to receive JobKeeper payments worth nearly $3bn in the December quarter to help revive the state’s stricken hospitality industry.

Victorian cafes and restaurants would be able to one person per 2 sqm under Restaurant and Catering’s proposed rescue package. Pictured is Common Ground cafe at Burleigh Heads, Queensland. Picture: Mark Cranitch

Victorians need to receive JobKeeper top-up payments worth nearly $3bn in the December quarter to help revive the state’s stricken hospitality industry, the sector’s peak body says.

The Restaurant and Catering Association has also called on the ­Andrews government to issue $100 vouchers for people to spend at cafes and restaurants and in-home dining.

The proposal, sent to the Victorian government on Thursday night and obtained by The Australian, outlines four demands costing a total $3.6bn after “significant and harsh” restrictions were announced on Sunday in Premier Daniel Andrews’s four-step coronavirus roadmap.

The state government’s plan would see restaurants and cafes seating a maximum of 50 people indoors from November 23, while outdoor dining would commence on October 26.

“R&CA believes that this roadmap is unworkable and unduly punishes hospitality businesses who have proven themselves able to operate in a COVID-safe way, as demonstrated in other states and territories,” the submission states.

“R&CA believes the roadmap should change and that restriction levels, case number triggers and date progressions do not reflect a reasonable ‘suppression’ strategy as adopted by national cabinet.”

The association’s chief executive, Wes Lambert, said that if Mr Andrews refused to budge on his roadmap, it was “time to pay for the plan, Dan”.

By far the most expensive initiative in the proposal is the extra JobKeeper payments.

“As the JobKeeper 2.0 program was announced prior to the release of the roadmap, the staged reduction in JobKeeper payments do not adequately support Victorian businesses, who will rely on JobKeeper staying at the full $1500 per fortnight amount to survive and keep staff employed,” it states. “R&CA submits the federal government should fund a Victorian ‘top-up’ to 31 December 2020, and should the federal government choose not to do this, the Victorian government should fund this difference.”

Treasury estimates 1.36 million Victorians will be on JobKeeper in the December quarter, compared to 880,000 Australians from the rest of the country.

If every Victorian employee received an extra $300 per fortnight, that would cost the government about $2.9bn between September 28 and December 31.

Under the hospitality industry’s proposed stimulus package, Victoria’s 2.1 million households would be handed up to $100 — or $50 for singles — to spend on restaurant bills, similar to Britain’s “eat out to help out” campaign. That initiative would cost about $200m. The state’s 12,735 cafes and restaurants and 1005 catering companies and function venues would also have access to “reopening grants” of between $25,000 and $50,000, costing about $368m.

Restrictions on outdoor dining would also be eased, with one person per 2sq m allowed instead of one person per 4sq m.

Outdoor dining permits would be fast-tracked, unused space would be made available to nearby hospitality venues, the Victorian government would waive or meet the cost of licences, and $5000 grants would help cafes purchase equipment including tables and chairs.