Border restrictions are here to stay - Will you survive until November?
If your businesses is one of the many that is feeling the impact of no staff, no customers or not being able to trade, then now is the time to start to plan how to mitigate the impacts. The Greater Southern GC Chamber has been lobbying for the QLD Government to recognise the very localised impacts being felt by almost every small business in the border area one way or another, and to get some very targeted support for those businesses.
A message from our southern neighbours.
As you may have seen yesterday (Tuesday, 24th August) and in today's news, the current border restrictions are here to stay for at least 10 week or until 70% vaccination has been reached. This is not going away if the NSW regional lockdown ends.
In order for us to get the message over to the politicians, it’s vital that we understand what proportion of businesses are impacted and how badly. This can only be properly shown if you share your stories and experiences which is why we need you to complete our survey if you haven’t already.
Below are links to two surveys, one from our chamber for QLD businesses and one from Businesses NSW which is the peak chamber in NSW. If your business is registered in QLD please do our survey, if it’s registered in NSW please do the NSW survey, or best of all do both!
We don’t know what support may look like, it may be a grant, it may be some rules specific to QLD/NSW border zones.
This week we’ve already had meetings with the NSW Cross Border Commissioner, The Tweed Chamber, Laura Gerber MP, Geoff Provost MP, Warren Polgase and Businesses NSW to discuss the sort of support provided in similar circumstances to the Victoria/NSW border businesses previously and also about the border bubble, which seems unlikely to be reactivated in its previous form and unlikely to be moved either.
This Chamber has also been drawing attention to our unique position with the press and media to keep your plight front of mind. On Wednesday (25th August) I had a meeting with the QLD Small Business Commissioner who will take our messaging back to the QLD Government that the $600M lockdown grants don’t apply to us now we aren’t in lockdown and that we are not going to survive intact for another 10-weeks of these border restrictions, or more, without some vital targeted support one way or another.
Please complete the survey relevant to your business and if you know someone who doesn’t get this email or hasn’t completed the survey please pass it on.
We need to know your stories to be able to get the message out!
QLD Survey Link https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8H2XYYM
NSW Survey Link https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WLFKQFG
Regards,
Hilary Jacobs
President - Greater Southern Gold Coast Chamber of Commerce
.png)
