Government Services

Council has implemented a wide range of initiatives to support our local businesses during these challenging times.

These include: 

• Introducing the Burwood Cares program to provide updates and help connect our local community and businesses with Council services and links to other agency programs and services.
• Waiving all mandatory health inspection fees for the next six months, including an increase to the grace period for ticketed and timed parking to 15 minutes, and concentrating on situations that present a health or safety risk.
• Conducting a comprehensive review of all fees and charges to determine those that could be adjusted during the next six months and provide a report at the next Council meeting.
• Continuing to increase cleansing and booked clean-ups.
• Reviewing the Rates and Charges Hardship Assistance Policy to ensure the most equitable assessment is performed in the event of unpaid rates by residents and businesses.
• Adopting a flexible and pragmatic approach to enforcement and compliance action for the next six months.
• Providing a 3-month credit to all businesses who have paid a licence for outdoor dining for 2019/20, once business returns to normal.
• Implementing an appropriate rent relief package for cafés, sporting facilities and childcare centres where Council is the landlord, with further assessment and implementation on relief measures as needed.
• Developing a dedicated section on Council’s website for information and resources for businesses, including links to the Federal Government’s stimulus package and any support package provided by the NSW Government.
• Publishing a dedicated web page for restaurants and cafes to promote what they offer so locals can support them.
• Increasing Council’s processing and payment of invoices to suppliers to a weekly basis, to guarantee cash flow for our business partners.
• Writing to the Minister for Local Government, the Premier of NSW, the Federal Member for Reid and the State Member for Strathfield to urge consideration of financial support for NSW councils in the delivery of these much needed essential services.

The NSW State Government is supporting jobs, healthcare, small business and the community through a $2.3 billion stimulus package in response to COVID-19. This is provided through extra funding and tax cuts.

These include:

• $450 million for the waiver of payroll tax for businesses with payrolls of up to $10 million for three months (the rest of 2019-20). This means these businesses will save a quarter of their annual payroll tax bill in 2019-20.
• $56 million to bring forward the next round of payroll tax cuts by raising the threshold limit to$1 million in 2020-21.
• $80 million to waive a range of fees and charges for small businesses including bars, cafes, restaurants and tradies.
• $250 million to employ additional cleaners of public infrastructure such as transport assets, schools and other public buildings.
• More than $250 million to bring forward maintenance on public assets including social housing and crown land fencing.
• $500 million to bring forward capital works and maintenance.

Read more on the NSW Treasury website. 

The Australian Government is supporting Australian businesses to manage cash flow challenges and retain employees. Assistance includes cash flow support to businesses and temporary measures to provide relief for financially distressed businesses.

Job Hub

The Australian Government has released a COVID-19 Job Hub to help the many employees that have been adversely affected by COVID-19 and reducing workforces, to more easily access jobs in health and care sectors, transport and logistics, some areas of retail, mining and mining services, manufacturing, agriculture and government sectors, among others that are experiencing increases in demand.

Go to the DESE website to read more.

Third Economic Stimulus Package

Includes access to JobSeeker payments to people with partners who earn up to $80,000 and JobKeeper payments of up to $1500 per employee for businesses to keep staff on.

JobKeeper Payment

Under the JobKeeper Payment, businesses impacted by the coronavirus will be able to access a subsidy from the Government to continue paying their employees. Affected employers will be able to claim a fortnightly payment of $1,500 per eligible employee from 30 March 2020, for a maximum period of 6 months.

Employers will be eligible for the subsidy if:

• their business has a turnover of less than $1 billion and their turnover has fallen by more than 30 per cent (of at least a month); or
• their business has a turnover of $1 billion or more and their turnover has fallen by more than 50 per cent (of at least a month); and
• the business is not subject to the Major Bank Levy.

Eligible employees are employees who:

• are currently employed by the eligible employer (including those stood down or re-hired)
• were employed by the employer at 1 March 2020
• are full-time, part-time, or long-term casuals (a casual employed on a regular basis for longer than 12 months as at 1 March 2020)
• are at least 16 years of age
• are an Australian citizen, the holder of a permanent visa, a Protected Special Category Visa Holder, a non-protected Special Category Visa Holder who has been residing continually in Australia for 10 years or more, or a Special Category (Subclass 444) Visa Holder
• are not in receipt of a JobKeeper Payment from another employer

Go to the Business.gov website to read more.

Cash flow Support for Small and Medium Businesses

The Government is providing temporary cash flow support of up to $100,000 for eligible small and medium-sized businesses, and not-for-profits (NFPs) that employ staff to help with their cash flow so they can keep operating, pay their rent, electricity and other bills and retain staff.

Go to the Treasury website to read more.

Temporary Relief for Financially Distressed Businesses

The Government is temporarily increasing the threshold at which creditors can issue a statutory demand on a company and the time companies have to respond to statutory demands they receive. The package also includes temporary relief for directors from any personal liability for trading while insolvent, and providing temporary flexibility in the Corporations Act 2001 to provide temporary and targeted relief from provisions of the Act to deal with unforeseen events that arise as a result of the Coronavirus health crisis.

Go to the Treasury website to read more.

Increasing the Instant Asset Write-off

The Government is increasing the instant asset write-off threshold from $30,000 to $150,000 and expanding access to include businesses with aggregated annual turnover of less than $500 million (up from $50 million) until 30 June 2020. In 2017-18 there were more than 360,000 businesses that benefited from the current instant asset write-off, claiming deductions to the value of over $4 billion. This measure will support over 3.5 million businesses (over 99 per cent of businesses) employing more than 9.7 million employees.

Go to the Treasury website to read more.

Backing Business Investment

The Government is providing a time limited 15 month investment incentive (through to 30 June 2021) to support business investment and economic growth over the short term, by accelerating depreciation deductions.

Go to the Treasury website to read more.

Supporting Apprentices and Trainees

The Government has set aside $1 billion to support regions most significantly affected by the Coronavirus outbreak. These funds will be available to assist during the outbreak and the recovery. In addition, the Government is assisting our airline industry by providing relief from a number of taxes and Government charges estimated to total up to $715 million.

Go to the Treasury website to read more.