Regions and communities that are severely impacted by the coronavirus will be given access to taxpayer support through a new $1bn fund – but it is unclear how the fund will operate, because the practicalities will be worked through with the states.
Scott Morrison unveiled the fund on Thursday as part of the government’s $17bn economic stimulus package, saying support would be given to industries battling the negative economic consequences of the pandemic, such as tourism, agriculture and education.
The prime minister said the fund would allow the waiver of fees and charges for tourism businesses operating in the Great Barrier Reef marine park and in commonwealth national parks to try and boost tourism numbers at a time when people would be deferring travel.
Morrison said businesses would also be given help to identify alternative export markets or supply chains. He nominated the town of Geraldton, where crayfish are caught and exported to China.
The prime minister said coronavirus had “obviously had a big impact on that town, and on that sector. Now, Austrade has been work with them to try to diversify their market and get their product into other places, but they’re also impacted by the fact that there are fewer planes between Australia and China and you need the bellies of the planes to put crayfish in.”
“So we’re going to need quite targeted plans working closely with people on the ground and this billion-dollar fund is creating the resource to fund those initiatives.”
A government factsheet about the initiative says the tax office will provide administrative relief for some tax obligations for people affected by the coronavirus outbreak, on a case-by-case basis.
“The ATO will set up a temporary shopfront in Cairns within the next few weeks with dedicated staff specialising in assisting small business,” it says.
Morrison said the fund would operate differently to other elements of the stimulus, because it would have less of an upfront stimulatory impact. It would work as both a relief and recovery fund, similar to a program the government has rolled out for recovery from the catastrophic summer of bushfires.
The National Bushfire Recovery Agency recently signalled some of the funds set aside by the government to assist recovery may also be used for the coronavirus response.
There have also been complaints from regions hard hit by the summer disaster that recovery funds are not rolling in fast enough.
In an estimates hearing earlier this month, the bushfire recovery agency head Andrew Colvin said $380m had been paid out in a variety of different grants and loans, but of the 104 applications for a small business concessional loan, just five had been granted for a total of $400,000.
That led Labor to call for the government to provide six months of payments to help small businesses in bushfire-affected areas to pay their wages. In response to the criticism, Morrison signalled the government was looking at making improvements to the program.
Morrison will meet state premiers and chief ministers in Sydney on Friday, and the prime minister said he would discuss the fund with the states.
Ahead of those discussions, Queensland has lobbied Canberra to open up its natural disaster assistance payments to local industries impacted by the coronavirus.
The prime minister signalled on Thursday he was looking for the states to step up to help manage the response, but that did not mean he would ask the premiers to match the commonwealth contributions dollar for dollar.
