00:00Nathan Eats spent years building his business, Cape Calamari, but it's been four months since he last caught a squid.
00:10My business has gone from thriving to pretty much zero.
00:13The Fleurya Peninsula fisherman is one of many who have been pushed to the brink by the algal bloom crisis,
00:20but until the criteria changed today, he hadn't been eligible for an industry support grant.
00:26No, I just didn't quite have the downturn due to still trying to fish and trying to diversify my business.
00:32Under the changes, it won't be as difficult to prove a business has been affected by the crisis.
00:37Timeframes to demonstrate a decline have been extended and the required reduction in turnover has been lowered.
00:44So reducing the threshold will mean that there are more businesses that are able to qualify. The process should be simpler.
00:51What we announced today is the direct result of the discussions that the Minister and I have been having over the course of late last week and across the weekend as well.
01:01But the opposition says the government's been playing catch up.
01:04Both to fishers and in terms of the environment response for far too long.
01:09It comes ahead of a visit from the Prime Minister later this week to see first hand the affected coastline, but he won't make any new funding announcement.
01:18The 28 million package is doing everything we hoped for and operating as expected.
01:23So we haven't currently got a request on the table to the Commonwealth for any additional refunds.
01:28The Premier says he'll make that request if the bloom lasts into summer, but has no figure yet on how much funding will be needed.
01:362
01:38Local
01:39Dimensions
01:40Plus
01:54Delhi
01:55Up
01:562013
01:57Brought
01:57Mid
02:01Grunt
02:03Number
02:04Robert
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