More than just financial help required for small businesses going forward

Anthony Lucas 

Well, Australia’s continued lockdown is threatening the survival of the nation’s small businesses. The vaccine rollout has been labelled as a shambles. And now many businesses are coping the full force as infections spike across many states. For more, let’s bring in Bill Lang from Small Business Australia, who joins us now at the desk. Bill. Thanks for your company.

Bill Lang 

Hi Anthony.

Anthony Lucas 

Now the federal government and the New South Wales Government has put forward a joint support package, what are the key elements of that?

Bill Lang 

Yeah, look there’s a couple of things, which are really important for everyone to understand. So one is they’ve decided at the federal government level and the state government level to go 50/50. So $1 for $1, which means it’s the most significant level of financial support that’s been made available inside any state to help both small businesses and the citizens that have got reduced hours of work. So we’re finally after 12 months of asking for this and the support of so many people that you know, hear a team Ticker, we’ve finally got a team approach 50/50.

Anthony Lucas 

Yeah. And it’s been long called for as well. Now Small Business Australia through its www.sosbiz.com.au has been asking for this 50/50 shared approach between the states and the federal government for over 12 months now. Why do you think you know that it’s taken this long to be introduced?

Bill Lang 

Well, I think there’s a couple of things. So it’s people power, so people come in, effectively sign their petition. And then we let the three levels of government know that it’s practical things like this, just we want to see less sort of throwing of sand and finger pointing at each other. So I think they’ve finally heard. Secondly, it’s common sense, it makes sense. And then the third reason, which I think is really important, is that they sort of have now recognised that there are things the federal government does and has a big impact. So vaccination rates, quarantine, then there’s things the state governments do, and it has an impact, you know, either getting people vaccinated, or they got control of hotel quarantine, or their drivers wearing masks. So it’s actually the decisions of both levels of government. And then the quality of implementation that impacts the people in that state. It’s not one or the other. It’s both. So it’s a true team Australia approach. And, you know, it’s taken a long time, but we’re finally got it. And the good news for the rest of the countries, at least they’re saying this will now be applied going forward, rather than having to sort of make it up as they deal and respond to these things.

Anthony Lucas 

Especially as you know, cases come they kind of left on their on their feet to say what what do we do now? What do you think we need to see done going forward, though?

Bill Lang 

So you know, we’d like to see more adequate compensation. But I think the other real thing is for small business families is many of them are very small businesses. They don’t have a great level of financial resources, but they’ve got suppliers that are sometimes very powerful – finance companies, insurance companies, sometimes powerful landlords, and they really need help, with the help of the state and federal governments to be able to sort these things out in a fair way, rather than the small business family really being left to bear all the costs as a result of a contract that was entered into years before COVID happened. And then the second real thing is the federal government needs to do something to protect these small business people in the event that they’ve got to close these business down and they still have debts they should not be made personally bankrupt.