The South Australia COVID-19 Emergency Response Bill 2020 (“Bill”) was enacted on Thursday 9 April 2020 in response to the National Cabinet’s Mandatory Code of Conduct.
The purpose of the Mandatory Code of Conduct document was to agree in principle a consistent way for the treatment of commercial leases across the country, leaving it to each state to independently legislate these principles.
A summary of the application of the code are as follows:
Over recent days the Federal Government has made significant announcements as part of their work towards enabling businesses to “hibernate” during this difficult time, with a focus on keeping Australians in work. These measures include the $130 billion “JobKeeper Payment” wage subsidy and the agreement by National Cabinet of some “common principles” with regards to commercial and residential tenancies.
It appears the Government’s intention is to allow businesses to press “pause” on their operations, so when the threat of the virus has passed the business can restart with the assistance of the staff they had before the crisis began. The Government is keen to attempt to ensure that businesses do not accrue large amounts of debt over the time the business is hibernating or on pause.
Yesterday South Australian Premier, Steven Marshall and State Treasurer Rob Lucas announced a $650 million stimulus package to support South Australian jobs and businesses during this extraordinarily difficult time.
This is the second stimulus package announced by the State Government following on from the announcement of a $350 million infrastructure boost to the state on 11 March 2020.
This second stimulus package is focused more directly on business and jobs and includes the following measures:
Please Note: this information was current as at 3pm Monday 23 March 2020. We will provide updates as further information becomes available or other announcements are made.
A number of announcements were made by Federal and State Governments on Sunday 22 March 2020 which will impact the way we live and work in South Australia, and around the country.
The below details are based on press releases and our understanding of the announcements. We are expecting legislation to be introduced to Parliament and passed today or tomorrow and further details will follow once we have seen the detail in the legislation.
This morning the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison announced a stimulus package worth $17.6 billion. The package contains measures to boost the economy with a combination of cash payments to individuals who qualify for government benefits and benefits to business.
Currently, these are just announcements with no supporting legislation which means the below could be subject to change and clarification. The administration of some of these incentives is yet to be confirmed.
What do we know so far?
