Government must assist with COVID-19 compliance

In the last week I have been out on the road with my team, it was fantastic to see businesses stepping up and meeting their requirements to be COVID-19 safe. It takes a lot to meet the requirements, new signage, hand sanitiser, dedicated staff members and new administrative tasks – I’m not complaining about these measures, they’re important to keep us all safe.

But, maintaining a COVID-19 safe business comes with a hefty price for our businesses – for some businesses its thousands of dollars. All of this while our businesses are trading thin.

A recent Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) survey showed that two-thirds of businesses reported a decrease in revenue due to the pandemic, for one in three businesses they’ve reported losing more that 50% of their revenue. For businesses out in Barwon, it’s doubly hard; we’ve been battling the impacts of drought for years, now COVID-19 is giving us another whack.

The $10,000 Small Business Grant offered by the Government earlier this year gave some of our businesses a hand. Now there’s the Small Business Recovery Grant of up to $3,000 for highly affected industries. This assistance really doesn’t go far enough to help our businesses meet their requirements to be COVID-19 safe – the NSW Government must step-up if we want to have a thriving Small Business community. I’ve made this view clear to the Treasurer and the Minister for Finance and Small Business.