Question Time

Hospitality Industry

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:08): My question is to the Premier. Is the Premier aware that many struggling hospitality businesses do not qualify for JobKeeper and hence cannot access much of the federal and state government support available?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:08): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. As he knows, there have been many businesses, individuals and families who have been very adversely affected by the coronavirus in 2020.

We have done everything within our power to keep South Australia safe and our economy strong. We are very pleased that, when we look at many of the statistics with regard to consumer confidence, business confidence and investor confidence in South Australia, they are trending in the right direction. When we look at what is happening in terms of employment, we have seen a massive bounce back since April and May of this year, but there are still some people who are very, very significantly adversely affected by the coronavirus.

The federal government has had very significant stimulus and support for our economy, and the Leader of the Opposition specifically refers to the JobKeeper program. Many companies qualified for that in March and April and then received it from May right through to 27 September. During that period of time, many people recovered their business and so no longer qualified for that ongoing support post 27 September.

In many ways that was a good thing because it showed that there was resilience, and it showed that people were getting back to normal business in South Australia, but some of course remained in that situation where they needed that ongoing support, and that is continuing with the federal government and will continue right through to next year. One thing I do know about this federal government is that it is agile. One thing I know about this federal government and the approach that we have taken on the national cabinet is that we will respond to the circumstances that affect us.

The Leader of the Opposition is alluding to the cash grants we have offered at the state level, and again this is something where many, many businesses—almost 190,000 businesses in South Australia that employ people—received a $10,000 cash grant. Most of those were paid out in the second quarter of this calendar year, and I know that this was very well regarded by those people who needed that bridge, if you like, to help them from a cash perspective.

In the most recent budget, which was handed down in this very chamber just last month, the Treasurer outlined that we will be providing a second round of $10,000 cash grants for businesses that were still struggling—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and that were still eligible for that ongoing JobKeeper payment. In fact, we expanded out the original criteria not just for businesses that had a wages bill of more than $70,000 but indeed for sole traders who had a commercial premises because we recognised that they, too, sometimes need that additional support, and so there was a $3,000 payment to those businesses.

With the Parafield cluster, sir, you will be aware that this pause that was put in place by the police commissioner, acting as the State Coordinator during the major emergency declaration, very significantly adversely affected many businesses in this state. Some said that this will affect their business to such an extent that it would be best if we could push out the date at which people could make an application for that second round. This was originally due to be on 15 December.

We have now pushed that out to the end of February to give people the maximum chance—those people who are adversely affected by this—to get access to that second round of cash grants to this sector.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the leader, I call to order the member for Badcoe, I call to order the member for Playford and I call to order the member for West Torrens.