LNP calls for more support for small businesses as Covid takes out workforce

The state and federal governments are being called on to announce support for small businesses who are losing hope as the virus takes out their workforce and customers.

The state and federal governments should announce support for small businesses as the virus takes out their workforce and customers, the state LNP says.

Opposition leader David Crisafulli said many owners and operators felt they had made it through the past two years of the pandemic, only to be left unsupported as the virus now swept through the community.

“To leave them at the final hurdle doesn’t make sense,” he said, pointing to assistance that had been offered previously.

Ms Crisafulli said assistance might be in the form of financial assistance, delaying payments due to government or through safe trade assistance, which would allow them to operate in a more Covid-safe way.

Opposition Leader David Crisafulli. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

He said small businesses were already struggling to remain open with staff sick, in quarantine as close contacts and due to a lack of customers as they were told to stay home.

“This is going to be the most difficult period and if the peak is a month away I think there’s going to have to be something,” he said.

“It might only be short and sharp and it might be targeted.”

He said he sensed that through his conversations with business owners, many were close to giving up hope after two years.

“I sense there’s a real pessimism sweeping across hospitality, tourism, the arts, pubs and clubs and even retail,” he said.

“Those sectors of the economy need to know they’re not going to be left on their knees.

“This is the period where they were promised after two years of uncertainty they were up for a bumper period.”

He said the issue should be put on the national cabinet agenda but said neither government should wait for the other to act.

“This is the most challenging time of the entire pandemic,” he said of small businesses.

“This is ground zero f

or most of them and it’s taken most of them by surprise.”

Meanwhile, Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland (CCIQ) said ongoing impediments to international arrivals and limited migration was putting massive pressure on the state’s workforce.

It has made a submission to the Department of Home Affairs regarding Australia’s 2022-23 migration intake recommending an increase in overseas migration and a focus on bringing employee-sponsored migrants, particularly to the regions.

CCIQ police and advocacy general manager Amanda Rohan said both skilled and unskilled migrants were crucial to Queensland’s steady population growth and economic prosperity.

“Without the reintroduction of overseas migrants, businesses will lack the employees they require to keep their doors open and the economy will have greater difficulty recovering in the wake of Covid-19,” Ms Rohan said.

Originally published as LNP calls for more support for small businesses as Covid takes out workforce