CORONAVIRUS —
SMALL BUSINESS — GOVERNMENT SUPPORT
23. Hon
Dr STEVE THOMAS to the Leader of the House representing the Premier:
I refer to the Premier's
announcement of $2 000 grants for businesses impacted by the snap COVID
lockdown from 23 April 2021.
(1) Have the conditions and
qualifying criteria been established for these grants?
(2) If no to (1), when will they be
finalised and announced?
(3) What
information and assumptions were used by the government to calculate the
expected losses by business at $70 million, as stated by the Premier?
(4) Will the Premier please table
that information and those assumptions?
(5) Will regional
businesses outside the Perth metropolitan and Peel regions qualify for the
grants; and, if not, why not?
Hon SUE
ELLERY replied:
I thank the
honourable member for some notice of the question.
(1) As stated by the Premier last Thursday, 29 April,
when he announced the small business lockdown assistance grants, details
of the program will be released later this week.
(2) See (1).
(3) The $70
million was a preliminary pro-rataed estimate based on Treasury's
analysis of the impact of the five-day lockdown in early February.
(4) Refer to pages 25–29 of
the 2020–21 Pre-election financial projections statement.
(5) No. The
impact on the Perth and Peel regions is expected to be more significant, given
that only these regions were required to enter the lockdown.