A pandemic stimulus plan to give Sydneysiders $100 vouchers to spend on Friday lunches in the central business district has angered business leaders in the city’s west.
The New South Wales government’s strategy to curb a growing trend of working from home at the end of the week has been welcomed by many business groups.
But Business Western Sydney has slammed the Berejiklian government for excluding Sydney’s second-largest business centre from the scheme, saying the Parramatta CBD is suffering equally from the changed working behaviours.
The state government will spend $50m on the Thank God It’s Friday voucher scheme, with up to 500,000 people to be offered four $25 vouchers, totalling $100 each.
NSW residents will be able to apply for the vouchers via the Service NSW app. The program is expected to go live “before summer”, with no firm date set.
Unlike NSW’s previously announced Dine and Discover voucher scheme, more than one lunch voucher can be used to pay for the same bill under the Thank God It’s Friday program, up to a total of $100.
But the vouchers can only be spent at businesses within the CBD’s 2000 postcode, as the NSW government seeks to revive the tradition of long lunches on Friday.
Both dining and entertainment businesses will be eligible, although the vouchers cannot be used for alcohol, tobacco or gambling.
The voucher plan was one of a slew of initiatives announced on Friday ahead of Tuesday’s state budget.
Dominic Perrottet, the NSW treasurer, said his government had consulted businesses before launching the scheme, and that the vouchers are “a targeted program designed to get more people back into the heart of the greatest city on earth”.
“It’s about making Friday’s fantastic and fun and at the same time helping the Sydney CBD, which has been hit hardest by Covid with a reduction in CBD workers and the absence of overseas visitors for more than a year,” Perrottet said.
David Borger, the executive director of Business Western Sydney, formerly known as the Western Sydney Business Chamber, told Guardian Australia he was disappointed the vouchers don’t extend to the Parramatta CBD.
“Successive NSW governments have spent 30 years building up Parramatta as a city in its own right. Why would you lock Parramatta out of this Friday voucher scheme when it is facing the same challenges of a returning workforce as the Sydney CBD is?” said Borger, who is a former Labor MP.
“Parramatta’s restaurants have not only been hit hard by the pandemic but also by the construction of the Parramatta light rail in our famous ‘Eat Street’.
“Businesses across all CBDs in Sydney need support in encouraging people to return. Let’s not just focus narrowly on the Sydney CBD.”
Meanwhile Gabriel Metcalf, the chief executive of the Committee for Sydney think tank, has praised the initiative, saying “I can’t think of a better Australian tradition to revive right now than the long lunch”.
“In these tough economic times, it’s practically a civic duty,” he said. “We call on the good people of NSW to support their CBD restaurants and use these new vouchers.
“Have one meal for yourself and one for the country.”
Damian Kelly, the acting executive director of Business Sydney, said Sydney’s CBD was still running below 70% of pre-Covid activity, especially on Mondays and Fridays.
“A free Friday lunch on the government will entice workers into the CBD and boost business. Not just for hospitality venues but for many other businesses in the city on days when the city streets are still very empty in the nation’s once-thriving economic driver,” Kelly said.
