The revelation from BECA that only $8 million from the $50 million Business Events Grant Program has even been earmarked for distribution comes just days after the Federal Government announced an additional $135 million in support for our more glamorous cousins in the Arts.
Only $8 million for a $35.7 billion industry that is one of the very hardest hit.
Save Victorian Events’ survey back in February showed that 40% of companies were likely to have to close when JobKeeper ends, and a further 43% would need to let their staff go. In addition, 69% of the freelancers that our industry relies so heavily on would need to leave the industry.
JobKeeper has now ended without any real federal government support for our industry or any real state government support either in most states. It is a dire state of affairs.
There is an urgent need for an Event Industry Taskforce to bring together key people and resources from across the Event Industry – including from the traditional associations – to quickly put together a strategy and actions to counter this dreadful situation.
We remain very happy to contribute the knowledge, and resources, we have gained from running a grass roots campaign in Victoria over the last eight months.
Our industry is about bringing people together and working together. This is exactly what we need to be doing.
Our industry has so many great people and businesses. We cannot give up on them now.
That’s because the funding is not the issue. All our so called representatives have got it all wrong. Rather them blame the government re lack of $. They all should be targeting capacity numbers at venues just like sporting codes did last year.