Take a moment to reflect on how much of your life is spent interacting with small businesses every week: the cafe where you get your morning coffee; the plumber you call to fix a leaking tap; the ballet school where you take your children on Tuesday afternoons; or the yoga studio where you go when they are in bed. And that’s just a start.
Now take it all away.
The hospitality industry is feeling the strain amid coronavirus fears.Credit:Louie Douvis
That is what is at risk as the cases of coronavirus in Victoria rise exponentially and people increasingly put up walls to protect themselves and their families. All those small businesses that are such a big part of how we live our lives in Melbourne are about to suffer unprecedented hardship. Some will not make it through.
We are scared. Many parents have ignored official advice and pulled their children out of school, or out of their extracurricular activities. Children’s sports have been cancelled, despite separate advice issued on Wednesday that they should continue. Restaurants are offering discounts and new services, like takeaway, to counter the drop in customers through their doors. Retailers are plugging their online stores and launching sales to get income into their cash registers before the big shutdown everyone is anticipating.
We have not faced this sort of crisis in living memory – one that challenges the very way we live our lives. It demands a holistic and creative response from all of us, not just from government. Woolworths, for example, should be applauded for offering to employ stood-down Qantas workers, to help it deal with the sudden surge in demand for its products. Praise also goes to the big banks, which will allow struggling small businesses – and homeowners – to defer their loan repayments for up to six months.
Plenty of ideas have been circulating about how the government can help small businesses. The latest federal stimulus package, which includes the $25 billion wages boost for small and medium businesses is welcome. The first package, worth $17.6 billion, had the right idea in targeting small businesses with measures to support investment and improve cash flow.
The government says the total value of measures announced to date, including the full suite of measures that will be unveiled today, is $189 billion or the equivalent of 9.7 per cent of Australia’s GDP. It is important to note that this includes things outside the government’s own measures, such as the $90 billion lending program the Reserve Bank announced on Thursday.
Billionaire investor Hamish Douglass called for stimulus of 20 to 30 per cent of GDP last week but this would take government spending to a wartime level of almost 50 per cent. Sourcing that sort of cash would push up interest rates and cause pain for taxpayers – an unnecessary burden when this crisis is tipped to last only three to six months.
Each of us has a role to play in protecting our communities from long-term economic harm. Support small businesses wherever you can. Get a takeaway coffee from the local cafe. Buy a loaf of bread to take home. Should the time come when it is no longer safe to engage with the wider world and we must retreat, shop online and have meals delivered. If you have the income, consider paying for another term of ballet. Even if your child won’t be able to go, it will help their teacher pay for one more week of groceries.
It is often said the opposite of love is not hate, but fear. We must put love for each other and our communities first, if we are to survive this long winter and re-emerge from its chill in the spring – shaken, but not broken.
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