Tara Murray
Some local businesses could close in the next couple of months following the ending of JobKeeper, according to the Brimbank Business Association.
The JobKeeper payment that helped many businesses survive during the COVID-19 pandemic ended last week, throwing many businesses and staff into the unknown.
Brimbank Business Association president Daniel Dalli said the ending of JobKeeper could be traumatic for a lot of businesses.
“JobKeeper is ending at a time when a lot of local businesses are not at full speed or not at a recovered point,” he said.
“Some people are still not back in full trade and a lot of businesses are still relying on it.”
According to federal government data, 5833 organisations in Brimbank made applications for JobKeeper payments in January.
Organisations in the 3023 postcode, which includes Cairnlea and the majority of Deer Park, made 1277 applications in that period.
In the 3020 postcode, which includes Sunshine, 1202 organisations made applications, ranking both postcodes in the top 10 in the state for January applications.
In the 3023 postcode, there was a high of 2393 businesses making applications in September, while more than 2000 businesses in 3020 made applications that same month.
“I expect businesses to try and hold on for the next month or two,” Mr Dalli said.
“In a month’s time we could see some businesses closing.”
Mr Dalli said one of the biggest problems facing many businesses in the area was the unpredictability of what will happen from one week to the next.
He said retail and tourism businesses were among the hardest hit.
“We’ve seen glimpses and it is really inconsistent,” he said.
“For restaurants it has been really hard to judge what they might get on a particular night. The ability to forecast isn’t there.”
Mr Dalli said with so many local residents relying on payments, the end of the payment could be a double whammy for organisations.
“There’s a flow on effect,” he said. “Potential customers now have less money to stimulate the economy.”
Mr Dalli said he believed that there should be some support still in place for organisations that have been relying on JobKeeper.
