Darwin publican Jason Hanna fears JobKeeper job loss ‘tidal wave’ as changes kick in for payments

DARWIN publican Jason Hanna, who like more than 4800 Territory businesses is tapping into the JobKeeper program, is ‘really concerned’ about the ‘potential tidal wave’ of job losses that could come with the newest round of changes to the program.

DARWIN publican Jason Hanna, who like more than 4800 Territory businesses is tapping into the JobKeeper program, is “really concerned” about the “potential tidal wave” of job losses that could come with the newest round of changes to the program.

Mr Hanna, who originally had 17 staff on JobKeeper across seven venues, said he was concerned about the effects of reducing the relief measure.

“I am on the edge of my seat with my own businesses,” he said.

Economist Saul Eslake reckons the so-called JobKeeper cliff is unlikely to happen, though the true impacts of scaling down the relief measure won’t be known for at least a few weeks when new payroll job data is released.

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Darwin publican Jason Hanna, whose businesses include Chow. Picture: Glenn Campbell

From Monday, the JobKeeper rate for full-time employees was reduced from $1500 a fortnight to $1200 while part-time workers who clocked less than 20 hours a week before the pandemic hit will have their payments reduced to $750 a fortnight.

Eligibility requirements for businesses on JobKeeper will also get stricter.

This is the first wave of changes, with the next rollback scheduled for January 4 until the program runs out at the end of March.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner, who had previously voiced concerned about the “cliff”, said this had been turned into a “beach landing” instead after long conversations with the Prime Minister and the federal Treasurer.

Chamber of Commerce NT chief executive Greg Ireland said there was some positivity among the business community but there were still some “really impacted” businesses, particularly in the tourism and travel sectors.

Mr Ireland said the rollback of JobKeeper would affect the ability of those businesses to retain staff.

The most up-to-date statistics from the Australian government show 4810 busi­nesses were on JobKeeper in June while 26,138 Territorians were being supported by JobSeeker, which was the pumped-up version of the dole until changes also kicked in on Monday.

The coronavirus supplement attached to JobSeeker of $550 a fortnight has been reduced to $250 a fortnight.

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Mr Hanna said the future was uncertain.

“Learning to not rely on JobKeeper has been a good thing for us, but every little bit really counts and we don’t know what the future holds,” he said.

“You know we’ve just got to work our butts off to make sure we’re still here this time next year.”

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Originally published as Darwin publican Jason Hanna fears JobKeeper job loss ‘tidal wave’ as changes kick in for payments