Australia & NZ Covid-19 response summary of payments

Australian Federal Government Response

·      JobKeeper payment for employees - $1500 per fortnight for eligible employees

·      Income support for individuals - time-limited Coronavirus supplement to be paid at a rate of $550 per fortnight

·      Payments to support households - two separate $750 payments to social security, veteran and other income support recipients and eligible concession card holders

·      Temporary early release of superannuation - access up to $10,000 of their superannuation in 2019-20 and a further $10,000 in 2020-21.

·      Temporarily reducing superannuation minimum drawdown rates

·      Reducing social security deeming rates - a 0.5 percentage point reduction in both the upper and lower social security deeming rates.

·      Cash flow support for small and medium businesses - cash flow support of up to $100,000 for eligible small and medium-sized businesses, and not-for-profits (NFPs)

·      Temporary relief for financially distressed businesses - temporarily increasing the threshold at which creditors can issue a statutory demand on a company and the time companies have to respond to statutory demands they receive. The package also includes temporary relief for directors from any personal liability for trading while insolvent, and providing temporary flexibility in the Corporations Act 2001 to provide temporary and targeted relief from provisions of the Act to deal with unforeseen events that arise as a result of the Coronavirus health crisis.

·      Increasing the instant asset write-off - increasing the instant asset write-off threshold from $30,000 to $150,000 and expanding access to include businesses with aggregated annual turnover of less than $500 million (up from $50 million) until 30 June 2020

·      Backing business investment- limited 15 month investment incentive (through to 30 June 2021) to support business investment and economic growth over the short term, by accelerating depreciation deductions. Businesses with a turnover of less than $500 million will be able to deduct 50 per cent of the cost of an eligible asset on installation, with existing depreciation rules applying to the balance of the asset’s cost

·      Supporting apprentices and trainees - wage subsidy of 50 per cent of the apprentice’s, or trainee’s wage paid during the 9 months from 1 January 2020 to 30 September 2020

·      Support for Coronavirus-affected regions and communities - $1 billion to support regions most significantly affected by the Coronavirus outbreak

·      Support for immediate cash flow needs for SMEs - Government will provide a guarantee of 50 per cent to SME lenders to support new short-term unsecured loans to SMEs. The Scheme will guarantee up to $40 billion of new lending

·      Quick and efficient access to credit for small business - The Government is cutting red tape by providing a temporary exemption from responsible lending obligations for lenders providing credit to existing small business customers

·      Reserve Bank of Australia – Supporting the flow and reducing the cost of credit - The RBA announced a term funding facility for the banking system. Banks will have access to at least $90 billion in funding at a fixed interest rate of 0.25 per cent.

·      Support for non-ADI and smaller ADI lenders in the securitisation market - The Government is providing the Australian Office of Financial Management (AOFM) with $15 billion to invest in structured finance markets used by smaller lenders, including non-Authorised Deposit-Taking Institutions (non-ADIs) and smaller Authorised Deposit-Taking Institutions (ADIs).

·      Australian Prudential Regulation Authority - Ensuring banks are well placed to lend - The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) has announced temporary changes to its expectations regarding bank capital ratios.

NZ Government Response

·      Essential costs - If you’ve lost your job or had your hours reduced you may be able to get a benefit or some other financial help from Work and Income.

·      Employer Wage Subsidy Scheme - The subsidy is a lump sum payment for the employer to pass on to employees. It covers 12 weeks per employee and pays $585.80 per week full-time workers and $350.00 per week for part-time workers.

·      Essential Workers Leave Payment Scheme - The scheme offers the same rates as the Wage Subsidy Scheme of $585.80 per week full-time workers and $350.00 per week for part-time workers.

·      Protection for renters and tenants

·      Mortgage repayment holiday scheme - New Zealand’s retail banks are offering to defer repayments for all residential mortgages for up to 6 months for customers financially affected by COVID-19.

·      Support for Māori communities and businesses -

Māori communities and businesses can access help tailored to meet the specific needs of Māori in the face of COVID-19. These include:

• a Whānau Māori Community and Mārae package reprioritising $10 million from the Māori Development vote to support community outreach
• A Māori Health and Whānau Ora response with $30 million targeted directly to Māori Health services and an extra $15 million to Whānau Ora commissioning agencies
• supporting Māori Businesses and engaging with Māori with $1 million of funding to enable a needs assessment for Māori businesses, and $470,000 to Te Arawhiti to engage and work with iwi on their COVID-19 pandemic response plans.

·      Wider $12.1 billion package - $12.1 billion package include income support and further investment in our health.

NSW Response

·       $1 billion Working for NSW fund to sustain business, create new jobs and retrain employees. The fund is already being put into action with 1000 new staff for Service NSW. The Working for NSW fund will comprise $750 million in new funding and $250 million announced last week for additional cleaning services. 

·       Deferral of payroll tax for business with payrolls over $10 million for six months (up to $4 billion deferred

·       Deferral of gaming machine tax for clubs, pubs and hotels for six months

·       Deferral of duty on lotteries and keno for six months.

·       Deferral of the parking space levy for six months

·       $34 million boost in funding to prevent homelessness. 

·       $30 million to boost the Energy Accounts Payments Assistance scheme. 

·       $10 million to support charities for food security

·       Hospitals will get $700 million for extra resources, including doubling the ICU capacity, establishing acute respiratory clinics and purchasing vital medical equipment, such as extra ventilators. 

Victoria Response

·       $500 million Business Support Fund - a one-off $10,000 grant which can be used towards costs such as utilities, rent and salaries, and activities to support business continuity planning.

·       Working for Victoria job matching scheme

·       $3m payroll tax relief

·       Liquor licence fees waived

·       Land tax deferral

Queensland Response

·       $2.5 billion for workers and industry - Up to $500 million to assist workers who lose their job or income with retraining, job-matching and other help to transition into jobs in the industries that are vital to get Queensland through this crisis – such as health care, agriculture, food production, transport, cleaning and mining.

·       Payroll tax relief - Immediate payroll tax refunds of $740 million for COVID-19 affected businesses

·       Large businesses - (payroll over $6.5M) affected by COVID-19 will also be eligible for the two-month payroll tax refund and have their deferral extended for all of 2020.

·       $500 rebate on electricity bills for all Queensland small and medium sized businesses that consume less then 100,000 kilowatt hours. This will be automatically applied to electricity bills.

·       Liquor licensing fees waived for business impacted by enforced safety industry shutdowns.

·       $300m for households - $200 rebate for all 2.1 million Queensland households (including the $50 Asset Ownership Dividend already announced) to offset the cost of water and electricity bills.

·       $1.2b for health to increase capacity