Lockdown Six support welcome lifeline for
Victorian business
The Victorian Chamber welcomes today's prompt announcement of a new $400 million State and Federal Government support package, which will give businesses the confidence they need to get through Lockdown Six and continue the recovery from Lockdowns Four and Five.
The package follows the $400 million State-Commonwealth funding announced last week. The Victorian Chamber is pleased that our significant input and engagement with the State and Federal Governments was reflected in the two packages.
This is the fourth tranche of business support made available and will provide automatic payments to almost 100,000 eligible businesses, including sole traders. This latest allocation includes:
- Support for eligible workers who lose hours due to the lockdown via the Commonwealth's COVID-19 Disaster Payment. Businesses that don't qualify for State Government support programs because they are not registered for GST will also be eligible.
- Automatic payments of a Business Costs Assistance Program Round Three grant of $2,800 – an allocation of $266 million – for more than 90,000 businesses.
- New payments of $5,000 to $20,000 which will be made to more than 8,900 hospitality venues across Victoria that received funding support from the Licensed Hospitality Venue Fund through the May/June and July lockdowns.
- Between $5,000 (off-mountain) and $20,000 (employing businesses, on mountain) for Alpine businesses under a $10.6 million extension of the Alpine Business Support Program.
- Approximately $54 million added to the Small Business COVID Hardship Fund announced last week, allowing grants of up to $8,000 to be paid to small businesses that were not eligible for support under existing programs and have experienced a 70 per cent reduction in turnover.
The Victorian Chamber encourages members to apply for all the assistance they are entitled to and we will provide
