Casual workers, small businesses feeling lockdown sting in south-west

Businesses scrambled to serve customers and fit in clients on Thursday following the announcement of the state's circuit-breaker snap lockdown.

Non-essential businesses like hairdressing, entertainment and gyms have been forced to close their doors.

These industries have a largely casualised workforce and small operators across the region are hanging on the acting premier's promise of a business support grant.

Anushka Brows and Beauty owner Rhiarna Sharma and her team had around 65 appointments a day they had to cancel.

"There's not much we can do about lockdown, at least it's helping Victoria stop that spread," she said. "Fingers crossed it's only seven days.

"I only have one fulltime worker, the rest are all casual now and there's not much I can do for them other than leave without pay because the JobKeeper scheme has finished.

"The government hasn't said anything for businesses yet. There was a little grant last time so hopefully they can do something like that again.

"We're always a week behind in pay so I'll still have to pay this week's wages up until next week.

"I'll budget that out, but it's hard not knowing next Friday if we'll go another week.

"With stock levels we have huge orders - outlaying a lot of money. When lockdowns happen it becomes tricky with beauty and events.

"Last weekend we had Brauer's deb so it was a busy week with that, thank god that got through. We had another formal this weekend, so it's unfortunate for events.

"We're back to square one again and feel for all those who had booked in hair, makeup and tans. The impact just keeps spiraling.

"From a business perspective you're forever living in fear this is going to keep happening, you never feel safe to plan too far ahead because you don't know what's going to happen.

"I only just started organising myself after having my second bub.

"We still have to cover rent and overheads even though we're not open."

Nicole Parsons just took over Lava Hair and Beauty Studio in Warrnambool.

She said the impact was not just financial for business owners; it was also a mental struggle.

"There's not much we can do about it, we just have to go with the flow," she said.

"We haven't really got answers for anyone because we don't know if it will be longer than a week.

"I only bought this business three months ago so it's all new to me.

"I'm hoping there's some type of grant to help.

"With a new business taking off it's a little bit daunting as to what's going to happen. You take that chance know something might happen but you can't have a negative perspective, it's something we all have to live with.

"That said, they can't keep shutting everything down."

She said it was hard to understand why regional Victoria was included in the lockdown.

15,000 close contacts have been linked to the Victorian outbreak, including in regional Victoria.

"I think the biggest thing that's annoying people is that it's in the city - we're in the country and going about life and all of a sudden the whole state is locked down," she said.

"Why are we getting punished for city things?

"The mental effects are huge too, particularly for single people getting locked down.

"It's not just businesses, it affects the whole town."

Acting Victorian Premier James Merlino said support for business would be announced soon.

"We will be providing a package for businesses and we will be releasing that in the coming days," he said on Friday.

"We understand, absolutely, that a circuit-breaker lockdown has an impact on families, on children, on businesses and on the broader community.

"We also understand that it's quite tough at the moment - there is no JobKeeper anymore."

After the last lockdown in February, the state announced a $143 million package designed to help businesses, including sole traders, that lost income as a result of the five-day disruption.

That included $2000 one-off payments for businesses and sole traders.

It is expected that a similar package will be unveiled again.

"The Prime Minister made some comments that the Commonwealth is looking to work hand in glove with the Victorian government and I welcome that," Minister Merlino said.

"Our immediate focus in terms of the decisions we have had to make have been on public health; doing what we need to do to keep our community safe and allow the public health team to get ahead of this outbreak.

"Our focus is now both on dealing with the outbreak as well as thinking about what further support we can give our business community and our event organisers.

"We know this is difficult and we know it is even more difficult because we are in a period now where JobKeeper is not providing the direct support.

"Wage subsidies are Commonwealth matters so we are discussing between governments, between treasurers, about what support the Commonwealth can provide."

He said it was too early to say if that support will extend to casual workers.

"It's too early to say what the package may or may not include but I want to indicate this morning to the business community, to sole operators, to everyone, that the treasurers are in discussion and we are working on a state package for business."

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