COVID-19, Tourism and Hospitality Businesses

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:06): My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer update the council on the progress with respect to distributing financial assistance to tourism and hospitality businesses struggling due to the impact of COVID-19 in South Australia?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:06): As members will be aware, there are particular industry sectors that have been much more significantly impacted by the impacts of COVID-19 over a longer period of time. Clearly, businesses in the tourism and hospitality sectors are commonly referred to as an example, but there are also many others in terms of the travel industry, aviation industry, international education industry and others that are also similarly significantly impacted as a result of either ongoing international travel restrictions or interstate travel restrictions as well.

I am pleased to be able to report to the house that, in the latest round of financial assistance grants, which are particularly targeted to the tourism and hospitality sector, within four days RevenueSA officers within Treasury processed just under $5 million in grants to almost 2,000 eligible South Australian businesses, with grants at either the $1,000 or $3,000 level as an automatic payment. This follows a recent series of rounds with $3,000 per grant and, in one of those grant rounds, an extra $1,000 for those businesses in particular that are impacted in the CBD area because of the particular impacts of businesses operating in the central business district as well.

In response to earlier criticisms of earlier grant rounds that the maximum grant generally was around about $3,000, in the most recent grant round the taxpayers of South Australia through the government have funded grants of up to $20,000 per grant and they were for medium-sized businesses. So for a business with a turnover greater than $5 million, they were eligible for grants up to $20,000, and for businesses with turnovers greater than $2 million, they were eligible for grants of up to $10,000.

The process for the distribution of those grants was that most of those grants were automatically processed for $3,000. For those businesses that might be eligible for the bigger grant, there was the Treasury website and other advice provided that indicated they might need to provide greater information in relation to their turnover and the impact of COVID on their business for them to be eligible for the bigger grant. We are hopeful that we will process those applications as quickly as we can when they are distributed.

Broadly, I am advised by Treasury that around about $85 million in cash grants has now been paid to almost 30,000 small and medium-sized businesses in South Australia to provide some level of assistance as a result of the impacts of COVID. I hasten to say that as we said right from the very first grant round in the middle of last year, almost 12 months ago now, the taxpayers of South Australia cannot afford to compensate every business in the state for every level of loss that they might have incurred as a result of the impacts of COVID. It is beyond the capacity of taxpayers to be able to afford that sort of assistance.

What the taxpayers will seek to do is to save as many jobs as we can and to save as many businesses as we can, together, of course, with saving as many lives as we can through the tremendous work of the Minister for Health and the hardworking team within SA Health and associated health-related providers.

Finally, in relation to providing further rounds of assistance, there is a major events category in the latest round of assistance which will provide grants of up to $100,000 for a small number of events which had to be cancelled during the eligibility period as a result of the lockdown and the restrictions that followed it immediately.

Finally, congratulations to the Adelaide City Council but also to various government departments and agencies and the government and the Property Council and other stakeholders in the various promotions that are going on in recent days in relation to #GoToTown but also FOMO Fridays and a variety of other initiatives that stakeholders, the council and state government are taking to try and activate the city, in particular on Fridays, for those increasing numbers of—

The PRESIDENT: The Treasurer will bring his answer to a conclusion.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: —CBD workers, who are working from home and not working in their CBD offices anymore.