Government relief expands for small businesses affected by ongoing agal bloom in South Australia

4 months ago

Months into South Australia's toxic algal bloom, many affected businesses say it's unclear whether they'll survive the crisis. But not all had been eligible for grants rolled out to help get them through. Changes to the grant eligibility criteria have been announced, allowing more businesses to tap into the state and federal government’s $28 million relief package.

Transcript

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.