Traders adapt to subsidy changes

TOWNSVILLE businesses will need to adjust to a different way of working as JobKeeper payment changes are rolled out later this year.

On Tuesday, the federal government announced the scaling back of Jobkeeper and Jobseeker from October to help businesses transition out of the economic downturn generated by the coronavirus pandemic.

The $1500 Jobkeeper payment will be scaled back to $1200 per fortnight from September 28 and to $1000 per fortnight from January 4.

Lower rates of pay will be in place for people who work fewer than 20 hours per week.

Shorehouse, which was one of Townsville’s many restaurants to adapt to a takeaway format amid the pandemic, is already making adjustments as Jobkeeper changes create another new normal.

Restaurateur Jamie Fitzpatrick said Jobkeeper was a “great initiative from the start” but it did present businesses with new challenges.

He said the “natural attrition” of Jobkeeper meant some staff were “more comfortable” on Jobseeker than Jobkeeper, opting not to work throughout the pandemic.

“A lot of staff moved to other industries that were more stable,” Mr Fitzpatrick said.

There was no doubt the current model had kept some people out of the workforce at some level, but there were jobs out there — including at Shorehouse, he said.

Townsville Chamber of Commerce president Michele Falconieri said the changes were good for business, but added that businesses could not be funded forever.

He said the chamber had written to the Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Wednesday to advocate for a change to the 4sq m rule, which had reduced the capacity of some mid-sized restaurants, making it difficult to remain profitable.

“As we move and transition to a new normal, we need the restriction put in place to be eased … (so businesses can) find their own way back to a viability,” Mr Falconieri said.

He added that the changes to Jobseeker would make it easier for businesses to find the staff necessary to implement the changes needed in the wake of the pandemic.

The federal government will reintroduce job-seeking requirements for the JobSeeker payment, which were suspended in March.

It has also reduced the topup to $250 per fortnight, which was on top of the $550 base payment, from September 25.

Mr Falconieri said this change would encourage more people back to the workforce and help businesses that were “pivoting” to new requirements to “work out if they need to employ more people … or whether they can ramp up takeaway or dine-in options”.