Hospitality industry outlines rescue package once JobKeeper ends

Hospitality staff to be paid after JobKeeper ends under plan pitched to Treasurer.

Hospitality workers would be paid up to $1000 per fortnight by the Morrison government under the “HospoKeeper” plan being pitched to Josh Frydenberg. Picture: Supplied

Employees working for the nation’s worst-affected restaurants, cafes and hotels would continue having wages subsidised by taxpayers on a monthly basis after JobKeeper ends, under a detailed rescue package being pitched to Josh Frydenberg to help save the hospitality industry.

“HospoKeeper” would replace JobKeeper from April for six months as part of a “short-term, targeted” scheme, with eligible businesses paid the current fortnightly JobKeeper rate of $1000 for full-time staff or $650 for employees who worked fewer than 20 hours a week. The payments would be available to all accommodation and food services businesses but only if they were “substantially affected” by government-imposed restrictions, such as venue density limits, caps on event numbers, working-from-home directions for CBD workers or interstate and international travel bans.

Businesses would also need to prove via their Business Activity Statements at the end of each month their revenue was down by 15 to 30 per cent compared with pre-pandemic levels in 2019.

The post-JobKeeper proposal, one of the first of its kind, came as Scott Morrison left the door open to further assistance for tourism amid predictions it will take years for the sector to fully recover.

Restaurant and Catering Australia chief executive Wes Lambert, who outlined the hospitality plan in a letter sent to Josh Frydenberg and Trade and Tourism Minister Dan Tehan on Tuesday, said HospoKeeper was designed to support a sector that was still being disrupted by restrictions often put in place “with little or no warning”.

“Whilst all of these actions are taken through following the best health advice available to governments across the country, they unfortunately leave thousands of businesses facing sustained losses and with the threat of eventual closure when JobKeeper ends,” he writes. “As Australia’s vaccination program is unlikely to approach completion until the end of 2021, it should be expected that these restrictions and distribution will continue until at least the end of the year.

“Whilst R&CA understands and respects the desires of the federal government to persevere with the end of the JobKeeper scheme in March, it is our strong view that further sector-specific support is required to ensure businesses, including their supply chains, stay open and continue providing jobs and economic activity for our nation.”

Pressure is mounting on the Morrison government to extend or replace JobKeeper as industries decimated by the COVID-19 pandemic face another year of uncertainty.

Health Department secretary Brendan Murphy and Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly have said it was unlikely the international border would reopen in any substantial way until at least 2022.

Touring regional Queensland on Tuesday, the Prime Minister said his government would “target” its next phase of assistance but any commitments were not required yet. “We changed out of JobKeeper at the end of September (to JobKeeper 2.0) and what did we see happen?” he said. “We saw 450,000 businesses get themselves off JobKeeper and more than two million Australians no longer needing taxpayer-funded support …

“Where we need to make targeted investments, proportionate, commensurate with the challenge, we’ve done that. That’s been our way of doing things.

“And so we’ll assess those things as we go forward.”

The Treasurer would not be drawn on the hospitality proposal and pointed to previous comments in which he said it was his intention for JobKeeper to end as legislated on March 28.

Accommodation and food services, arts and entertainment and tourism industries are among the worst affected from the COVID-19 pandemic and are particularly impacted by lockdowns and border closures.