Sarah Courtney,Minister for Small Business, Hospitality and Events
The Tasmanian Liberal Government is delivering on our plan to rebuild a stronger Tasmania, by providing more financial help to additional small businesses.
Further support will be provided this week, with 1890 small businesses to receive a grant under the $15 million COVID-19 Small Business Sustainability and Recovery Grant Program.
In total, $9.45 million worth of grants have been approved by the independent assessment panel.
All applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application over the coming week, just four weeks since applications closed.
We are working with the Department of State Growth to determine how to best use the remaining funding to support Tasmanian small businesses and will make a further announcement on this in the coming weeks.
A further $412,000 has been paid out through the second round of our $2 million COVID-19 Small Business Continuity Grant, with applications due to close on 2 October 2020.
More than 2,600 small businesses have now received the $750 grant under Round One and Two of the program, supporting them to engage a qualified specialist to advise on continuity planning or provide financial advice to assist with their business recovery.
The funds remaining following the Round Two closing date, will be made available for small businesses to continue to access business advice through a further program to be announced shortly. This is consistent with recommendation 6 of the Premier’s Economic and Social Recovery Advisory Council Interim Report.
We are currently working on the details of this program and are considering how best to support small businesses to focus on recovery and building resilience.
Our $20 million COVID-19 Small Business Sustainability and Recovery Assistance Package is part of our more than $80 million small business support and stimulus arrangements, the largest in Tasmanian history.
