Australia – The End Of Jobkeeper And New Support For The Tourism Industry.

Australia’s JobKeeper Payment program ended on 28 March 2021. The Australian government confirmed it would not further extend the program, but has instead announced a $1.2 billion tourism stimulus package. 
 

Which businesses are benefitting from the program?
 

• Airlines;

• Hotels and caravan parks;

• Restaurants and bars;

• Travel agents and tourism operators.
   

What does the program offer?
 

As part of the package, Australian travellers are able to access 800,000 half-priced airfares to 13 tourism-reliant regions, which will be subsidised by the government.
 

Other new measures in the support package include:
 

• New International Aviation Support to help Australia’s international passenger airlines maintain more than 8,000 core international aviation jobs;

• Support for regular passenger airports to meet their domestic security screening costs;

• A new Aviation Services Assistance Support Program to help ground-handling companies meet the costs of mandatory training, certification and accreditation to ensure they maintain their workforces so they can ‘stand employees up’ when the market expands again; and

• The reinstatement of domestic aviation security screening cost rebates for more than 50 regular passenger airports.
   

The government will also expand its small and medium enterprise loan guarantee scheme.
 

Options for employers 
 

Whilst the government support package will be welcomed by the struggling tourism industry, there is no doubt that thousands of other Australian employers are still battling with business viability and the loss of JobKeeper has been keenly felt.

If employers are having difficulty maintaining costs as a result of staffing levels, then those employers may consider:

• whether any restructure/re-organisation of the business could assist with managing costs;

• whether redundancies may be necessary; or

• a reduction in hours of operation/hours of work.
   

As always, employers should be mindful of their obligations under the:
 

• Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth);

• any applicable modern award or enterprise agreement; and

• the terms of an employee’s employment contract.