A peak employer association in Queensland has called on the State Government to reinforce the measures announced last week by the Federal Government to support the State’s businesses during the current COVID-19 pandemic.
Australian Industry Group Queensland Head Rebecca Andrews has called on the Government to act in three areas:
- Provide payroll tax relief for businesses.
- Re-evaluate all Grants programs to ensure jobs are preserved.
- Relax retail trading hours and other regulatory restrictions to provide businesses more flexibility in offering services.
Ms Andrews said these measures would help Queensland businesses to stay open, keep their current staff employed and support the wider community.
“Payroll tax relief would assist businesses currently suffering from a downturn in revenue to keep their staff,” she said.
“Importantly, the relief should cover employees of all organisations with payroll tax liabilities including the larger businesses who do not qualify for the Federal Government measures which are aimed at small and medium-sized business. Such a move would help businesses keep their doors open and support job security for thousands of Queenslanders.
“Job security should also be the focus in a re-evaluation of all Government Grants.
“Currently, many grants are made available on a basis of ‘job creation’ which emphasises how many extra jobs a business can create with extra support. While this is a worthy goal in growing an economy, the current situation calls for a focus on ‘saving jobs’, so the grants rules need to change.
“The call to relax regulatory restrictions including on trading hours will help all businesses support the more vulnerable in our community.
“We applaud that businesses, like Woolworths, are planning to open early to allow vulnerable groups to gather supplies before the general public. This cannot be done in Queensland currently due to our restrictive trading hours legislation,” Ms Andrews said.
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