Peter Gutwein,Premier
Tasmanians are tough.
We’ve got through this pandemic together and we’ll get through this living with COVID transition together, but let me say how proud I am of our local businesses.
They have been agile and resilient and I want to send a strong message that we will support them every step of the way.
The Tasmanian Liberal Government remains committed to supporting our small business sector as some businesses continue to face challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic.
While we know that our economy is strong and that many businesses are doing well, to assist those that are facing challenges, in consultation with the business community, the Government is making more funding available.
I am pleased to announce that round two of our COVID-19 Business Impact Support Program will open at 2:00pm on Tuesday, 15 February 2022.
Funding is available to businesses that have experienced a reduction in business due to COVID-19, this time for the period 15 January 2022 to 14 February 2022. This is consistent with the first round of the program which is for support for the month up to 14 January 2022.
Support is available for those businesses experiencing reduced trading caused by a loss of staff due to COVID-19 exposure that has affected the business’s ability to operate, or loss of business due to significantly lower than usual customer demand.
We have listened to what businesses are telling us and have made changes to the program to offer additional support and simplify the application and approvals process to make it easier for businesses to access support in a timely way.
We have also doubled the maximum funding amount available to $10,000, with the minimum amount remaining at $1000, depending on business turnover.
Businesses that received assistance through round one of the program may still be eligible to apply under round two.
Payments of between $1000 and $5000 will also be available to businesses that experienced an unavoidable loss of perishable goods because they have had to close for seven days or more. Payments will be tiered according to business turnover.
Since the start of the pandemic, Tasmanian businesses have received more than $160 million in COVID-specific support programs, and as we have always said, the Tasmanian Government will consider further support if more needs to be done.
Guidelines and information on applying will be available on the Business Tasmania website next week.
