CORONAVIRUS — SMALL BUSINESS — GOVERNMENT
SUPPORT
20. Ms C.M. ROWE to the Premier:
I
refer to the government's efforts to safely and responsibly manage the
spread of Omicron and avoid the ''let it rip'' approach to
COVID that has been adopted by some of the other states.
(1) Can the
Premier update the house on how the state government is continuing to support
businesses and industries throughout the pandemic?
(2) Can the
Premier advise the house what impact a full reopening of the WA border with no
quarantining and no testing would have had on businesses?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
I thank the
member for Belmont for the question.
(1)–(2)
As the Prime Minister said, Omicron was a game changer. It caused chaos across
the eastern states. It impacted the health of
Australians and has caused thousands of deaths over the course of this year. It
has also impacted heavily on economies and businesses across Australia.
We have seen repeated stories and headlines of shadow lockdowns in Sydney and
Melbourne. I saw one article in the Daily Telegraph that read —
''Sydney's
CBD � has withered into a bleak wasteland �
That is because
of the impact of COVID, particularly Omicron.
Again, going ahead with a full
reopening of the state's borders on 5 February would have been reckless
and irresponsible. We would have not only risked the lives and health of Western
Australians because we did not have a high enough third-dose vaccination rate,
but also seen a huge impact of Omicron on our community, mass furloughing of
workers and the impacts that we have seen in the eastern states. We made the
right the decision in order to preserve lives and jobs in Western Australia.
The government understands that some
businesses based on travel have been impacted, but there were no cost-free
decisions available to us in this matter. Letting Omicron rip through our
community, which is what we were facing, would have come with incredible costs
to Western Australia, with even bigger and more urgent demands for business
support packages. In light of what we did, which was a necessary decision, we
have announced a comprehensive safe transition industry support package for
businesses in Western Australia. The package itself is worth $77 million. It is
backed by the Tourism Council of Western Australia and it is aimed at
supporting businesses and organisations in international education, tourism,
aviation and the events sector. It includes nine targeted programs to support
cashflow and help offset some of the costs endured by some parts of those
sectors.
International education has faced
significant challenges due to federal border controls and we have provided support for students. We have provided
support for small and medium-sized education providers. We have provided
assistance with quarantine costs for international students. Tourism has done
incredibly well in Western Australia over the course of the last two years, but
we understand that some businesses were impacted by our decision. Therefore, we
are delivering a $20 million tourism support program, a $15 million tourism
deposit refund program to businesses that had to refund deposits and a $3 million
travel agent support fund.
For the events industry, we are
extending and expanding the Getting the Show Back on the Road program and
delivering the $3 million events suppliers support program. We have been able
to do this because of responsible financial management. Our financial
management over the course of the last five years, but also our safe management
of COVID over the course of the last two years, has meant that we are the strongest state and strongest government
financially in the commonwealth of Australia. We have been able to fund
these programs without significant impact on the state's debt levels
because of that financial and COVID
management. Already, in response to COVID-19, the government has delivered
around $10 billion in measures to support the community.