00:00Gail Benjamin is outraged about a government grant for exporters.
00:07It's nine months that we are waiting. I've been going to local politicians because I can't see any other way.
00:12This is the copy of the application.
00:14Gail's agent has many clients that are battling the system after Austrade changed the grant's application requirements last year.
00:21They decided to implement a first-in, best-dressed model.
00:25In November, applications for one round of the Export Market Development Grant closed after less than four hours.
00:33People have likened it to a Taylor Swift concert, right, so the fastest fingers won.
00:37There were several instances nationally where people complained that they had missed out because the portal had crashed.
00:43Nine months later, companies like HealthGuard are still in the dark about their grant applications.
00:49It's put us in limbo big time.
00:51It indicates a deep misunderstanding of how forward planning works within a business.
00:56The grant is currently being reviewed.
00:58There's a lot of flaws in the system, so that obviously has to be looked at in this review process.
01:03Criticism of Austrade's signature grant is coming as many Australian companies are also battling the impacts of Donald Trump's tariffs on American imports.
01:13The opposition says that Australian exporters are being neglected.
01:17Both Austrade and the Trade Minister, Don Farrell, declined to be interviewed.
01:22I think Austrade can do a lot better job.
01:25The department says that every eligible exporter is going to know within weeks if they've got a grant.
01:31These straws are made of wood.
01:33The department has told Gail Benjamin that her grant offer is imminent a day after she told Austrade that she'd spoken to the ABC.
01:43The field is up.
01:45After she was taken to the British.
01:47She's recovered and reduced the contract.
01:48The State Department actually is a specific ingredient, where she was keeping her with the benefits.
01:50The state's called Forgo.
01:52Here's the domestic investment.
01:53Another one of the two of the three, two of the three, two of the three, two of the three.
01:56Part of the three, two and three of the four, three are the five, four, three of the three.
01:59The two, three of the three are the four.
02:03The two, three, three, three, four, three, four, three.
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