State governments announce economic stimulus for hospitality industry

The state and territory governments have announced a series of economic measures to help support small businesses, including those in the hospitality sector, during the coronavirus pandemic.

The state and territory economic stimulus are independent of the Federal Government’s economic stimulus package for small businesses announced earlier in the week.

New South Wales, currently the state worst affected by the COVID-19 outbreak, announced a $2.3 billion stimulus package.

While $700 million will be spent on increasing the capacity of intensive care units throughout the state, $1.6 billion is being pledged to help keep people in jobs, and to support small business.

“This package works hand-in-hand with the recent moves by the Reserve Bank of Australia and the federal government,” Premier Gladys Berejiklian said.

In an effort to help small businesses, $450 million will be allocated to waive payroll tax for the next three months, or until the end of the financial year. This will be available for all businesses with payrolls of up to $10 million.

The NSW government is also scrapping fees that apply to businesses in the hospitality sector such as bars, cafes, restaurants, as well as tradespeople.

The Western Australian government has announced its own $609 million economic stimulus package, in a bid to support households and small businesses.

Of that $114 million has been pledged to support small businesses in WA with a focus on payroll tax breaks.

Any WA small business that pays payroll tax will receive a one-off grant of $17,500. Businesses with a payroll of between $1 million and $4 million will be eligible for the grant.

Businesses with payroll of less than $1 million will become exempt from payroll tax, from July 1.

Western Australian businesses affected by the coronavirus outbreak may also be eligible to defer their payroll tax payments until July 21.

The Queensland Government has announced a $500 million loan facility that will be created to support businesses, which will comprise loans of up to $250,000 with an initial 12-month interest free period for businesses to retain staff. 

The initial six-month payroll tax deferral will also be extended to all businesses across Queensland. This payroll tax relief means that businesses will not need to lodge or pay payroll tax returns until 3 August.  

A $27.25 million package was also announced to provide temporary fee relief for commercial tourism operators. Fees will be waived for liquor and gaming business applying to change trading hours or change a licenced area; and there will be market diversification and resilience grants of up to $50,000 for agriculture, fishing and food exporters.

The Tasmania Government has announced a $420 million package including payroll tax waivers for the last four months of this financial year for hospitality, tourism, seafood and exports sectors, and $20 million in interest-free loans to the hospitality, tourism, seafood and exports sectors to be made available to businesses with a turnover of less than $5 million to purchase equipment or restructuring business operations. The loans will be interest free for three years. Another $50 million in interest-free loans will be available for local governments to upgrade, renovate and to do necessary maintenance to improve tourism and other assets.

The Northern Territory Government has announced a $60 million coronavirus stimulus package with measures to encourage spending on business upgrades. Businesses will receive $20,000 if they spend $10,000 of their own and eligible businesses will get an initial $10,000 grant for upgrades, and another $10,000 if they contribute $10,000 of their own money. Business owners will be able to spend their grant on upgrades or equipment if purchased from an eligible Territory business.

The South Australia Government announced a $350 million stimulus package but the details are not yet available. 

The Victorian Government has yet to announce a stimulus package in response.

This is an evolving situation and will be subject to change as announcements are made by the respective governments and territories.

Sheridan Randall, 19^th March 2020