Page 773 - Week 03 - Thursday, 2 April 2020
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measures undertaken by the Australian government, may be able to avoid that situation.
In the case of the zoo, I am very conscious of the animal welfare issues associated with that. If it is necessary for the territory government to assume some of the costs and some equity in that business in order to get it through this period then we would be open to that.
MR WALL: Chief Minister, can you expand on what other measures are being discussed with such institutions, beyond what has been made public so far?
MR BARR: We have individual case management plans associated with those particular businesses. Many of them have unique circumstances, the zoo being one such example. Obviously, we are not the only jurisdiction that has a zoo in this particular circumstance, so the advice I have is that the commonwealth and state and territory governments are looking at a package for those sorts of unique tourist businesses.
Clearly airlines are the subject of quite significant government bailouts, and potential equity stakes have been discussed in relation to Virgin in particular in recent times. We have been working with the hotel industry. You would note that some hotels have been utilised for quarantine arrangements; others have the capacity to be utilised for emergency accommodation, potentially for healthcare workers who need to isolate between shifts and not go back to their homes. There are a range of circumstances in which we are engaged.
Rest assured, there is a very big team within Economic Development and VisitCanberra who are working with those individual businesses, as there is obviously no tourism marketing underway at the moment and there is no prospect in the short to medium term for there to be any domestic tourism industry in Australia. In the longer term it is unlikely that we will see borders unlocked any time soon in relation to international tourism.
MR COE: Chief Minister, what assistance will the ACT government provide to help the businesses that Mr Wall mentioned—the Dinosaur Museum, Cockington Green, and the National Zoo and Aquarium—and the Canberra Reptile Zoo, the bird aviary in Nicholls and numerous others to make it through this crisis?
MR BARR: We will provide tax relief. We will provide business advice and support. We will consider, as I say, taking equity stakes in some businesses where, if they did fall over, we would be left with a significant animal welfare issue. We will work very closely with the commonwealth government. The commonwealth’s JobKeeper announcement was very important. The national wage subsidy scheme will assist those businesses to keep staff on and that will be essential, particularly in the animal welfare role of the many examples that the Leader of the Opposition has given.
I do not think we want to come out the other side of this as the total owner of all of those assets, but I do recognise the importance of both the hibernation process that the Prime Minister has outlined and the extent to which both federal and ACT
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