$100m in small-business grants to combat COVID-19

The package is part of Queensland’s Economic Recovery Strategy: Unite and Recover for Queensland Jobs, and has been developed to assist those small businesses forced into hibernation to restructure or to significantly change their business operations or move online.

“Small businesses represent 97 per cent of all businesses and employ over 970,000 people or 45 per cent of the state’s private sector workforce,” Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said.

“We know small businesses have been doing it really tough due to the pandemic.

“With the first stage of our recovery roadmap in place, we want to make sure our thousands of small businesses have the support they need to recover and keep Queenslanders in jobs.”

These grants are aimed to provide immediate support to help them get back on their feet and come out stronger on the other side.

Minister for Employment and Small Business Shannon Fentiman said the new Small Business Adaption Grants will assist businesses impacted by COVID-19 to be more resilient and recover.

“Small businesses, including micro businesses, can apply for a share in the grants program to help pay for financial, legal or other professional advice, marketing and communications activities and digital or technology strategy development,” Ms Fentiman said. 

She explained that the grants can also be used to buy specialised digital equipment or business-specific software to help move the business online.

“Many events, workplaces, classes and sales have moved online and small businesses need to make sure they have the tools and resources to be competitive in these challenging times,” she said.

“We also realise that businesses may not currently have the financial resources to co-fund, so we won’t require matched funding which will better support our local businesses.”

The Small Business Adaption Grants will be funded through the $500 million Worker Assistance Package, which includes rapid delivery of projects to assist those who have lost their jobs or income and small businesses adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.