CORONAVIRUS —
ANIMAL WELFARE ORGANISATIONS
489. Hon ALISON XAMON to the Minister for Agriculture and Food:
I refer to the impact of the
COVID-19 crisis on animal shelters and animal welfare organisations.
(1) What
financial or other support is available from the Western Australian government
for those animal welfare organisations facing hardship as a result of loss of
volunteers, donations and fundraising income?
(2) Are any of the funding
mechanisms in (1) time limited?
Hon ALANNAH MacTIERNAN
replied:
I thank the member for the
question. I start off by saying that the member for Maylands, Lisa Baker, has
been coordinating donations from local members to the various animal shelters
across the state, so I hope lots of people have been able to contribute. I think
I am contributing to a ferret facility in the North Metropolitan Region. I am
very fond of ferrets!
(1) The McGowan
government has established a $159 million Lotterywest COVID-19 relief fund for
community groups and not-for-profit organisations that may be experiencing
financial difficulties throughout the COVID-19 crisis. We have worked hard to
ensure that this fund is open to eligible organisations in the animal welfare
sector. To make sure that they were aware of it, we wrote to all animal welfare
organisations.
There are two grant streams relevant
to animal welfare organisations. One is the event cancellation relief for arts,
sports and community groups grant of up to $14 million, which is available for
groups that experience financial hardship because of cancelled events. We
understand that many of the animal welfare groups rely on events, some even on
weekly events. The second fund is a resilient arts, sports and community groups
grant of up to $25 million to maintain staff, pivot operations, collaborate,
develop new ways of working, innovate, maintain viability and build resilience
as appropriate for future recovery.
(2) Yes. Applications closed on 13
May 2020.