The Tasmanian Liberal Government will provide an additional $20 million to help small businesses through the challenges of COVID-19.
This brings our support for small business to $80 million, forming a significant component of our nation-leading COVID-support package.
Small business is one of our biggest employers and also one of the sectors hardest hit during the pandemic restrictions and ongoing downturn in trade. During the past few weeks I’ve met with numerous small business operators, including through a series of regional roundtables, to hear first-hand their experiences and needs to support recovery. This feedback, along with the recommendations made by the Premier’s Economic and Social Recovery Advisory Council (PESRAC) in its first report, has informed the development of the new $20 million COVID-19 Small Business Sustainability and Recovery Assistance Package.
Our new COVID-19 Small Business funding includes $17 million in grants that will directly help our local operators, and $3 million to enhance existing small business support programs and provide additional mental health support.
The $17 million includes applications for the $15 million Small Business Sustainability and Recovery Grant program, which will open at 12 noon on 3 August 2020 and close at 12 noon on 24 August 2020, with application details for an additional $2 million in a second round of the Small Business Continuity Grant program to be announced in the coming days.
The Small Business Sustainability and Recovery Grant program will be a competitive, merit based program, with grants of $5000 based on the decisions made by an independent panel.
Assessment of grants will not commence until after the grant program has closed.
The purpose of the Small Business Sustainability and Recovery Grant program is to assist small businesses across a number of sectors to sustain themselves, recover, re-open, build capacity and innovate whilst continuing to be impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. The program will specifically support those eligible small businesses that:
Applicants will first need to meet all of the eligibility criteria before being assessed against weighted assessment criteria for the limited number of competitive grants.
The $3 million provided to enhance existing business support programs, include the Tourism Industry Market Support Program, access to additional free business advice through Enterprise Centres, increased access to the Digital Ready for Business Program and additional initiatives to improve access to mental health support for small businesses through a new Mental Health Support Program. We’ll also make it easier for small businesses to access government support.
PESRAC recommended further support for small and medium businesses to access financial/business advice to assist them to adapt and a round of grants or loans to support businesses transitioning to a sustainable post-COVID operating model. The new package announced today delivers these recommendations, and complements the recently announced trade and export support through the Accelerating Trade Grant Program.
The Tasmanian Government has already delivered the largest economic and social rescue package in the country, proportionate to Gross State Product, including more than $60 million towards our small business support grant programs, which has provided over 18,200 grants to Tasmanian small businesses across the state.
The COVID-19 Small Business Sustainability and Recovery Assistance Package now takes our small business support and stimulus package to more than $80 million, the largest in Tasmanian history.
For further information go to www.business.tas.gov.au or call 1800 440 026.
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