Senate debates

Wednesday, 25 August 2021

Questions without Notice

COVID-19: Small Business

2:53 pm

Photo of Matt O'SullivanMatt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister representing the Minister for Employment, Workforce, Skills, Small and Family Business, Senator Cash. Can the minister please advise the Senate on how the national plan agreed by national cabinet is bringing confidence to small and family businesses across Australia and how the Liberal and National government is supporting these businesses to get through and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic?

2:54 pm

Photo of Michaelia CashMichaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | | Hansard source

I thank Senator O'Sullivan for the question. The Morrison government well and truly believes and acknowledges that small and family businesses are the backbone of the Australian economy. Since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have provided to them and other businesses around Australia unprecedented economic and health support. What we're now seeing is Australians well and truly stepping up and backing small and family businesses around the country by backing and supporting our national framework for reopening. Australians—and you can see this every day, as Senator Colbeck tells us—are putting their arms out and getting vaccinated, and we see that reflected in the vaccination rates every day, because Australians understand that vaccination is the key to reopening and is the key, as set out by national cabinet, to ending the lockdowns and ensuring that businesses across Australia—in particular our small and family businesses—again have the confidence that they need.

In the Morrison government, we continue to put in place those policies which will help our small and family businesses. You would have seen today that we have announced that we are now providing additional support to small and medium businesses around Australia who continue to deal with the economic fallout and the economic impacts of COVID-19. What we are doing is expanding eligibility for the Small and Medium Enterprise Recovery Loan Scheme. What we are doing now is removing the requirements for SMEs to have received JobKeeper during the March quarter in 2021 or to have been flood affected in order to be eligible for this scheme. This is a good thing for those businesses, and what it shows is that we are continuing to put in place those policies that will back our businesses around Australia every step of the way.

Photo of Scott RyanScott Ryan (President) Share this | | Hansard source

Senator O'Sullivan, a supplementary question?

2:56 pm

Photo of Matt O'SullivanMatt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

How will the new eligibility for the SME Recovery Loan Scheme assist businesses that have been impacted by lockdowns and restrictions that are currently in place?

Photo of Michaelia CashMichaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | | Hansard source

SMEs that are dealing with the economic impacts of the coronavirus and have a turnover of less than $250 million will now be able to access loans of up to $5 million over a term of up to 10 years. Other key features of the SME Recovery Loan Scheme include that the government will guarantee 80 per cent of the loan amount; that lenders are allowed to offer borrowers a repayment holiday of up to 24 months; that loans can be used for a broad range of business purposes, including to support investment—if you can invest in yourself, we want to back you—that loans may be used to refinance any pre-existing debt of an eligible borrower, including those from the SME guarantee scheme; and that loans can also be unsecured or secured. Again, what we're doing is that the expanding scheme will enable lenders to continue supporting Australian businesses when we know they need it the most.

Photo of Scott RyanScott Ryan (President) Share this | | Hansard source

Senator O'Sullivan, a final supplementary question?

2:57 pm

Photo of Matt O'SullivanMatt O'Sullivan (WA, Liberal Party) Share this | | Hansard source

How can each and every Australian business and employee help ensure the delivery of the national plan so Australia can chart its way out of this pandemic?

Photo of Michaelia CashMichaelia Cash (WA, Liberal Party, Deputy Leader of the Government in the Senate) Share this | | Hansard source

That's exactly what we know Australians want to do: chart our way out of this pandemic. In particular, when it comes to those mum and dad small businesses around Australia, we all know that the best thing that we can do to support them at this time is to get vaccinated. Vaccinations, not lockdowns, are the answer to getting us out of the COVID-19 pandemic. We all know that by hitting the vaccination target we'll be able to reopen and we will all be able to see that light at the end of the tunnel. Small businesses, if we don't hit the vaccination targets, will close. Jobs will be lost. What we owe to every small business around Australia is to get behind the plan that has been agreed by national cabinet. That is the plan to give them the confidence they need so that they know that we're backing them every step of the way and that the country is backing them every step of the way.