Government relief cash for Katherine businesses
THE Northern Territory government is offering one-off immediate payments for businesses affected by the current lockdown in Katherine.
Businesses who have had to stop trading or have suffered a revenue loss of 50 per cent are eligible for an immediate payment of $1000.
Katherine newsagency Top News owner/manager Sondra Barry said she felt the business should not apply because other businesses in the region needed it more.
“There’s other business that will need it more than us because they couldn’t trade at all,” Ms Barry said.
“We’re very fortunate that we’re an essential service so we can show up and trade every day.”
Eligible small businesses are those that are actively trading with a turnover of $75,000 to $10 million and fewer than 20 full-time equivalent staff.
Chief Minister Michael Gunner acknowledged the financial pain caused by snap lockdowns.
“We know these lockdowns hurt, but they are necessary to keep Territorians safe,” Mr Gunner said.
Hospitality NT chief executive Alex Bruce welcomed the relief package, but called on the government to implement it more broadly across the Territory.
“Some businesses lose a lot more than $1000 and it doesn’t touch the sides,” Mr Bruce said.
“We’d like to see it expanded to areas outside of the lockdown and the lockout zone because there’s a lot of tourist and accommodation bookings wiped out from Darwin.”
Mr Bruce said the lockdown had come at the same time that Territorians were cashing in their tourism vouchers.
“Double-vaxxed Darwinites can jump on a plane and go interstate, but double-vaxxed can’t leave and get the benefit of intra-Territory tourism,” he said.