Small Business Grants

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (14:58): My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer update the chamber on the number of small businesses that have taken up the state government's $10,000 emergency COVID-19 grant?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:58): I am pleased to be able to report to the house that as of 12 o'clock today, the first $35 million in emergency grant relief has now been provided to small businesses and also to some non-government organisations that are eligible for the $10,000 emergency grant relief program. There are approximately 3½ thousand of these $10,000 grants that have now been distributed.

Of the original 21,000 approximately registrations of interest, at this stage, as of 12 o'clock today, around about 11,300 were of those have been deemed to be eligible, or look like they are going to be eligible. Of the original 21,000, a number of organisations and small businesses will have looked at the eligibility criteria and determined that they were not eligible for the grant.

One of the key determinants is they had to be accepted into the commonwealth government's JobKeeper program, and they therefore had to demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Australian Taxation Office that they had lost 30 per cent or more of their turnover to be eligible for JobKeeper, together with other eligibility criteria. That was an essential eligibility criterion together with others for the $10,000 grant, so it is therefore unlikely that we will get, and we never expected to get, the full 21,000 who had registered interest as likely to be eligible. So at this stage, 3½ thousand and $35 million approximately is the answer to the member's question.