More money will be handed to people who have lost work, and cash grants will be delivered to businesses struggling in Sydney’s extended COVID-19 lockdown. Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the additional support measures on Tuesday after finalizing the deal’s details with the NSW government.
The COVID-19 disaster payment for workers will be increased from $500 to $600 each week if a person has lost 20 or more hours from next week. People who have lost between eight and 20 hours will have payments increased from $325 to $375 weekly. Mr. Morrison said the temporary measures aimed to deliver support quickly.
Increased payments for workers
“You don’t have to have lost your job. You don’t have to have left your employer. It doesn’t matter who your employer is. If you have lost those hours, you can access that payment right now,” he told reporters. The COVID-19 disaster payment will also be recurring via Services Australia for as long as restrictions remain.
The payments will begin to flow from 16 July for the initial four local government areas to lockdown – Woollahra, Waverley, Randwick, and the City of Sydney – and for the rest of the Greater Sydney region from 19 July. Mr. Morrison said the payments would help keep workers who have lost hours connected to their employer, similar to the previous JobKeeper model.
“This is the next level of partnership necessary to ensure the sacrifices that have been made across Greater Sydney and New South Wales are going to get the results that we’re looking for,” he said.
‘Gives us the freedom.’
NSW reported 89 new locally acquired cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday, with the state’s Premier Gladys Berejiklian declaring there would be no end to lockdown restrictions until issues get to “zero or close to zero.”
Ms. Berejiklian said the economic support would help efforts to encourage NSW residents to comply with health restrictions. “It gives us the freedom to do what we need on the health side by asking everybody to respect the advice we’re providing,” she told reporters.
“Individuals and families and businesses don’t have to stress, and they know that for the duration of the lockdown, the support will be there, and the support will be there.”
But Labor’s Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers has raised concerns unlike the JobKeeper scheme – workers will still be at risk of being laid off. “The most important thing we need to see in this package is a guarantee that workers will keep their jobs,” he told reporters. “We don’t want to see the government discard so they don’t have to admit they were wrong to cut it.”
