Mark McGowan has announced a $77 million Safe Transition Industry Support Package to help industries most impacted by the delayed border re-opening and COVID-19 measures. The package features $13 million in targeted support for WA’s events sector, which has been flooded with cancellations in the face of COVID-19 uncertainty.
The Safe Transition Package includes a $10 million extension and expansion of the Getting the Show Back on the Road Program which aims to reduce the financial risks associated with running ticketed events by contributing towards lost ticket revenue. The program has been extended to include events cancelled due to the financial and operational challenges posed by changing COVID-19 restrictions, quarantine requirements and transmission risk. It also sees support made available for events that proceeded, but incurred a substantial impact on the number of tickets sold due to the impact of COVID-19 requirements.
The announcement also included a $3 million Event Suppliers Support Program – providing payments to eligible event suppliers for ticketed events with $10,000 grants for sole traders, $20,000 to small businesses and $50,000 to large businesses with pre-COVID annual turnover of more than $1 million. The program is limited to event venue hospitality, staging, security, traffic management and audio-visual activities for ticketed events, and requires businesses have had a minimum 30 per cent reduction in turnover in the period 5 February to 5 May 2022 compared to the same period in 2019.
More information and submissions for the Getting the Show Back on the Road Program are available via the DLGSC website. Guidelines for the Event Suppliers Support Program are yet to be published.
Expanded Getting the Show Back on the Road Program
The program provides support through sharing the risk of lost ticket revenue or registration fees for events impacted from 5 February 2022 from:
Cancellation due to:
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impacts of the border opening delay;
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COVID-19 infection or direction to isolate for event key personnel;
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quarantine requirements for key personnel entering WA making the event unviable; and
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COVID-19 capacity restrictions or social distancing directions.
Support for events that proceed but incur a substantial impact on the number of tickets sold (minimum 50% lost ticket sales/registrations) due to the impact of COVID-19 requirements.
The program will provide three tiers of support to cover lost ticket revenue or registration fees due to the causes listed above as follows:
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75% of gross ticketing/registration fee value for cancelled events resulting from a COVID-19 direction;
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50% of gross ticketing/registration fee value for self-cancelled events linked to COVID-19 requirements and/or border opening delay impacting on the viability of the event;
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30% of gross ticketing/registration fee value for events that proceed but are but incur a substantial impact on the number of tickets sold/registrations (min 50% fewer tickets/registrations) due to COVID-19 requirements.
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