NSW’s plan to save 10,000 hospitality and tourism jobs

The NSW government has unveiled a plan that could save 10,000 jobs.

The new plan would see the government expand employment subsidies to hospitality and tourism businesses.

On Wednesday, the state’s crisis cabinet approved the change which will see large tourism, hospitality and recreation employers who have a turnover of up to $1 billion, gain access to the JobSaver subsidy scheme. 

The scheme originally was limited to businesses with annual turnover up to $250 million.

This threshold meant some of Australia’s largest hospitality and tourism employers didn’t receive any assistance, despite a great deal of damage done. 

Data from last week shows around 260,000 applications for support had been made since the program was announced. Out of these, 200,000 were approved. 

The Australian obtained details of the extended payment plan showing that businesses with annual turnover of up to $500 million will receive instalments amounting to $300,000 provided they can show loss in turnover of up to 50 per cent. 

Those businesses with turnovers between $500 million to $1 billion will receive payments up to $500,000, but they need to show losses of 70 per cent due to the winter lockdown. 

“This expansion of the JobSaver scheme is expected to support more than 10,000 jobs,” a document outlining the package stated. 

The financial package is expected to be announced on Thursday.

Irit Jackson, 30^th August 2021