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Katie Woolf spoke with Minister for Small Business Paul Kirby · 360 with Katie Woolf

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: We do also know that the Northern Territory government have
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: just announced a little bit earlier this morning an extra
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: small business lockdown payment today, offering an additional one thousand
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: dollars to businesses which couldn't open this week due to
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: the COVID nineteen restrictions, places like gyms, yoga studios and
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: market stall holders. I understand. So joining us on the
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: line to tell us a little bit more is the
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  Speaker 1: Minister for Small Business, Paul Kirby.
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  Speaker 2: Good morning morning, Katie. How are you very.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: Well, so, Minister, another thousand dollars, but only for those
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  Speaker 1: businesses that are eligible like gyms, yoga studios and market holders.
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  Speaker 2: Yes, certainly, Katie. We're just in recognition that COVID is
• 0:42
  Speaker 2: never plain and simple and it always affects some businesses
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  Speaker 2: more than others. So we're just trying to highlight that
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  Speaker 2: under the Chose instructions there was a range of businesses
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  Speaker 2: that weren't able to open last Friday afternoon and there's
• 0:56
  Speaker 2: been another impact of that for those businesses. So certainly
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  Speaker 2: just and acknowledgment of that and another thousand dollars that
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: they can make themselves available of and they will be
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  Speaker 2: open from nine o'clock tomorrow morning. People just need to
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  Speaker 2: go to the Business Recovery dot int dot gov dot
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  Speaker 2: AU website and all the info will be there.
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  Speaker 1: Look, I reckon it's a good idea. The more support
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  Speaker 1: we can apply applied to those businesses, those small businesses
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  Speaker 1: that are suffering at this point in time, the better, Minister.
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  Speaker 1: The thing we're hearing though on our email and also
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: through calls is that some people who thought they were
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  Speaker 1: going to be eligible don't seem to be. I've got
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  Speaker 1: an email here from Judas that says, Hi, Katie, I'm
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  Speaker 1: a small business that applied for the grant of one
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  Speaker 1: thousand dollars for shutdown of my work. Eighty percent of
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  Speaker 1: my clientele is elderly, but have been told I'm ineligible.
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  Speaker 1: They say I'm ineligible because I own less than seventy
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  Speaker 1: five thousand dollars per annum. I mean, are you finding
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  Speaker 1: here that there's quite a few territory businesses who actually
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  Speaker 1: aren't able to access this thousand dollars to help them
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  Speaker 1: out in this time when they really need it.
• 2:01
  Speaker 2: Look, we know that you can't put a system in
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  Speaker 2: place that's going to assist everybody Otherwise, every person in
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  Speaker 2: the Northern Territory that has just got an ABM for
• 2:10
  Speaker 2: any particular reason would be available to one thousand dollars.
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  Speaker 2: The seventy five thousand is a figure that's used across
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  Speaker 2: the small business industry. It's when gest kicks in. The
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  Speaker 2: federal government uses it for a number of their targets
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  Speaker 2: as well. It's something that we used last year with
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  Speaker 2: some of our grants. So look, we've set the conditions
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  Speaker 2: as flexibly as as we could, and it's not people
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  Speaker 2: don't have to make seventy five thousand dollars, they just
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: have to turn over seventy five thousand dollars. So we
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  Speaker 2: realize that's not going to assist every person. I do
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  Speaker 2: know that the Department of Being like reviewing the ones
• 2:51
  Speaker 2: that are closer and trying to make sure that we
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: do help as many people as possible. We absolutely wish
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  Speaker 2: we could give everybody a thousand dollars to try and
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: help out, but that's just simply not the case unfortunately.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Minister. Do you have any idea how many businesses have
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  Speaker 1: received the payment over that first week so over last week,
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  Speaker 1: how many have indeed been eligible?
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, I know there's over two and a half thousand
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  Speaker 2: that have already registered. I know that early in the
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  Speaker 2: week when we clarified for the our Springs business people
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  Speaker 2: that they were also able to apply now in that
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  Speaker 2: stage had already been one hundred and twenty from down there,
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  Speaker 2: so I'm sure there'd been many more now that have applied,
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  Speaker 2: and we have got a million dollars out the door
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  Speaker 2: to these businesses already. So that program is open until
• 3:38
  Speaker 2: next Monday. So we really urge people to get onto
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  Speaker 2: that website to get an application in if they've got
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  Speaker 2: any concerns or queries to yeah, to raise them, because
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  Speaker 2: we do want to get people the money if they
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  Speaker 2: are genuinely entitled to it.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, and it does seem as though, you know,
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  Speaker 1: for some of those businesses like gyms, for example, I've
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: heard from a few people who work in gyms who
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  Speaker 1: are maybe on you know, maybe casual, but also from
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: a gym owner who said that, you know, obviously they're
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: still paying out wages. It's a difficult time at the
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  Speaker 1: moment with them not being able to open. I'm assuming
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  Speaker 1: that you're hearing quite similar stories through your office.
• 4:17
  Speaker 2: Yeah, certainly, And look to all of the business people
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  Speaker 2: that are continuing to pay people particularly casuals. We know
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  Speaker 2: that casuals get themselves or get in a really horrible
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  Speaker 2: position at this time, and we saw it last year.
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  Speaker 2: The federal government have some assistance that kicks in, but
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  Speaker 2: not until after you've been locked down, declared a hotspot
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  Speaker 2: by them, and for greater than seven days. So there's
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  Speaker 2: a lot of businesses that actually take it upon themselves
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  Speaker 2: to look after their casual workers, to make sure that
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  Speaker 2: they've got food packs and things like that. We really
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  Speaker 2: do feel for them. The Job Keeper and programs like
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  Speaker 2: that and wager reimbursements are obviously a federal government initiative
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  Speaker 2: that we don't have the capacity to step into. I
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  Speaker 2: did want to thank all of those businesses that have
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  Speaker 2: gone out of their way to make sure their casual
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  Speaker 2: staff and all of their staff are looked after. We
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  Speaker 2: very much appreciate it.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, look, there's so many wonderful businesses doing the right
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  Speaker 1: thing obviously, you know, making sure that they're following all
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  Speaker 1: the rules and helping their staff as well. Unfortunately, well
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  Speaker 1: one at least that hasn't, and we know that there
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  Speaker 1: is a Nightcliff takeaway business that's had to be shut
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  Speaker 1: down after not doing the right thing. I mean you,
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  Speaker 1: as a small business minister, must have been pretty annoyed
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  Speaker 1: when you saw that. You know that you have got
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  Speaker 1: this business who's flauting the rules.
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  Speaker 2: No, can you imagine being another small business, either in
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  Speaker 2: that area or anywhere through the top end, knowing that
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  Speaker 2: your livelihood depends on your ability to feed your family,
• 5:44
  Speaker 2: depends on everybody doing the right thing, and people decide
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  Speaker 2: not to. Yes, Yes, very annoyed would be a mild
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  Speaker 2: way of explaining it. I think they've been very idiotic
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  Speaker 2: in their behavior. And look, twenty five thousand dollars flying.
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  Speaker 2: Why would you do that? Like? Why would you put
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  Speaker 2: your staff at risk, put the public at risk and
• 6:04
  Speaker 2: risk a fine like that just doesn't make any sense
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: to me. But I would like to congratulate everyone that's
• 6:08
  Speaker 2: done the right thing that in general, the uptake right
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  Speaker 2: across the top end and now Springs has been fantastic, Minister.
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: Before I let you go, I have certainly been asking
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  Speaker 1: all of the Gunner government ministers at this point whether
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: they're going to be attending the Darwin Cup carnival. Will
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: you be.
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  Speaker 2: I love going to the carnival, Katie Beck, and I,
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  Speaker 2: to be honest, haven't made a decision about that. As
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  Speaker 2: you know, you're a young mum and quite often there's
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: a lot of things in leading up the long weekends
• 6:36
  Speaker 2: like that that have played into We'll make that decision
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  Speaker 2: closer to the mark as a family if we feel
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: that we can spend the time away from our family
• 6:46
  Speaker 2: for the day, where we might do that, but we
• 6:49
  Speaker 2: also might decide that it's on for us to spend
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: some time at home at all.
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  Speaker 1: Well, yeah, I mean the Chief Minister obviously saying on
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: the show yesterday that he's not going to be attending.
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: He said that, you know that really he doesn't want
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: to be there. He was quite angered by the whole
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: situation now that's unfolded as a result of this twelve
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: million dollar grant and the subsequent Eyekac report, which is
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: why he won't be going along. You know, he said
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: it's it's made him angry and I personally can't stomach
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  Speaker 1: going this year. Is there going to be a situation
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  Speaker 1: here where none of the territory government ministers go along
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  Speaker 1: to the Darwin Cup Carnival.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: I can't tell you that, to be honest, Katie. I've
• 7:29
  Speaker 2: been spoken with everybody individually about that. But look, put
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: yourself in the Chief Minister's position and you interview him
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  Speaker 2: a lot, you rarely hear him lose his temper. I
• 7:40
  Speaker 2: can absolutely guarantee you when we found out some of
• 7:43
  Speaker 2: the things that we've been lied to, he absolutely did
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: lose his temper there and understandably so. So yeah, I've
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: got no drama with him making that decision at all.
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: It's going to be an interesting time, no doubt about it.
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  Speaker 1: Minister for Small Business, Paul Kirby, thank you for chatting
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  Speaker 1: with this this morning.
• 8:00
  Speaker 2: I appreciate your time. Thanks Katie, thank you.