CORONAVIRUS — SMALL BUSINESS COMPENSATION
4. Dr D.J. HONEY to the Premier:
Madam Speaker, I add my
congratulations on your appointment; I think it is one of universal acclaim. I also
congratulate the Premier on his resounding victory and return as Premier of
this state.
I refer to the snap lockdown over
the Anzac Day long weekend and estimates by the Chamber of Commerce and
Industry of Western Australia and the Australian Hotels Association that put
losses to small businesses at more than $200 million.
Can the Premier confirm, as
reported in the media yesterday, that businesses have his government's
sympathy but will receive no cash compensation because it is too expensive and
too complex to administer?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
I thank the member for Cottesloe
for the question. That is a misrepresentation of what I said in the media
yesterday. I indicated that the state government is looking at what
compensation measures are available to it, particularly for small businesses
around Western Australia, but that it is often complex to administer these
things. I expect we will have more to say on that issue in the coming days.
I will also say that we had a snap
lockdown to protect the health and wellbeing of Western Australians. We have
taken steps since then to reduce risks to our state and nation consequent upon
infected Australians returning to this country. That is very sad for many
people, because obviously reducing the number of returning Australians will
have an impact on families around the country. It is a difficult decision and a
difficult thing to do; there are no easy choices. Some people seem to think
that there are easy choices in these things; there are not. Whatever choice we
make has consequence, so our guiding principle is that we have to protect the
state and continue along our current trajectory. It has been hard, and I expect
it will continue to be hard for people to cope with some of the decisions that
we have had to make.
It is true that other states have
taken different approaches. When New South Wales had an outbreak earlier this year—what was called the Northern Beaches
outbreak—it rolled on for weeks and weeks. It is estimated that the
cost of that was $3.2 billion; the estimated cost of our outbreak is
one-fiftieth of that. New South Wales had a lockdown of the Northern Beaches
region and spot lockdowns around Sydney and other parts of New South Wales over
the course of weeks; it rolled on for a long time. In the COVID-19 environment
there is so much information that people forget these things, but that is what
happened. We take the view that if the virus gains a foothold at all, it is
better to crush and kill it as quickly as we possibly can to avoid those sorts
of circumstances and the kind of economic dislocation that went on in New South
Wales.