The avalanche of economic pain resulting from the latest lockdown is hitting business confidence more than any lull in the last 12 months.
Business owners are scrambling to stay afloat amidst their biggest losses out of any of the four lockdowns to date, prompting concerns that recovery could be a step too far.
Logan Chamber of Commerce President Stewart Fleming said confidence is at an all-time low.
“Confidence in businesses being able to go forward and trade is being whittled down a lot,” he said.
“From the chamber’s point of view, we are a little shell-shocked, I think it’s getting to the point with events where we are really considering whether we push through with them.”
Mr Fleming is one of many business owners facing the prospect of laying off staff within weeks.
“With our permanent staff, we have a runway of about a week and a half before we have to let them go anyway,” he said.
“We’re not on our own, we really aren’t.”
By mid-August, businesses can apply for a $5,000 rebate from the state government. Payments could take another fortnight on top of that to be delivered.
“The suggestion of a $5,000 rebate is good, the fact it’s going to take two weeks to get to businesses is bad,” Mr Fleming said.
Queensland Treasurer Cameron Dick said money will be delivered within days of applying.
“Once the program is open applications will be processed as quickly as possible, with money to be provided to businesses within days of completed applications being considered and processed,” he said.
Administrative process has been cited as the reason why it will take another fortnight for the payments to come online.
Beck Cobbing, the owner of White House of Waterford, said the payment will not make much of difference to the losses caused by lockdowns.
“It costs us about $10,000 every time we go into a snap lockdown, and this is the fourth one,” she said.
She too is in the position of stepping down staff so they can access commonwealth assistance.
“We’re running with four full time staff at the moment and stepped everyone else down and given them a letter so they can get the payment,” she said.
Extraction Artisan Coffee owner Alex Milosevic has lost $30,000 between this lockdown and the last one at the start of July.
“That type of hit cuts deep into how the business operates,” he said. “We’ve already put from our own pocket back into the business.”
He said this is backing owners into a tight corner – either they fight to stay in open, or they make a tactical early closure to limit losses and look to reopen later.
“I’ve already had a friend who’s a caterer who’s shut down and laid off her staff because now those staff are able to get the federal government’s payments,” he said.
Blackout Coffee owner Sarah Code was due to open a new store in Meadowbrook this week but has had to halt those plans while she assesses the future.
“I just signed a five-year lease, and now I’ve been knocked down with the snap lockdown, so it is a really daunting period,” she said.
“We’re playing it day-by-day, we’re ready to open, but it’s just one of those things.”
