Coronavirus: JobKeeper changes prompt concerns among Dubbo businesses

Heidi Nichols, co-founder of The Skin Corrective Centre with sister Kim Scott, said the wage subsidy scheme had been vital to their reopening after a forced COVID-19 closure of more than two months.

Their relief at Tuesday's announcement of a six-month extension beyond the September 27 cut-off has been tempered by uncertainty about whether they would qualify for the new version of JobKeeper.

A Dubbo hotelier and a cafe owner also raised concerns about the new model.

From the end of September to January the $1500 fortnightly payment will fall to $1200 for full-time workers and $750 for people working 20 hours or fewer, and then reduce further from January to March.

Businesses will have to requalify for the program at both stages by showing revenue has stayed at least 30 per cent down in both the June and the September quarters.

That requirement triggered Mrs Nichols's concern.

She said it appeared the test would be based on comparing last year's revenue to this year, but last year's bottom lines had taken a major hit due to the drought.

"...past September, we were looking at some of the figures we were doing this time last year, and our figures weren't great, because we were experiencing one of the worst droughts the central west has seen," Mrs Nichols said.

"We were already really struggling to survive as a business and I know that a lot of other businesses would be feeling the same...

"I'm just concerned that there will be a lot of people who really need the support who won't qualify, in the central west especially.

"......While I'm so grateful we've had the support, and I really feel like the government's done a great job in what they've done to support us, without JobKeeper we certainly wouldn't be open, but I think moving forward, especially for the central west, some extra consideration should be put in place for eligibility."

Milestone Hotel owner Joanne Blair said she was pleased JobKeeper would continue to September 27, but it was disappointing after that the turnover test would look at the June quarter and the September quarter "in isolation".

"We would have to be down 30 per cent for the September quarter in order to qualify for ongoing JobKeeper support," she said.

"That was a bit disappointing, because even though we're back up and functioning we're probably at a level above 70 per cent of our original turnover but it doesn't show the true picture for the year.

"Our industry was very hard-hit by being closed for 10 weeks and there were a lot of costs associated with that, with no revenue."

Mrs Blair, who is the Australian Hotels Association of NSW Orana delegate, predicted broad impacts.

"...we'll probably find there will be a lot of people in our industry that will miss out, come the end of September and the support will not be ongoing through to March next year," she said.

The Gallery cafe owner Georgia Stevens had wanted JobKeeper to continue in its original form until December.

"I'm not really happy about it to be honest, because it's hard, obviously," she said of the changes.

"So I have staff who work the $750 amount of hours, so obviously that benefits me getting that, but with it being reduced, that's going to be hard on us again."

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said JobKeeper was always meant to be temporary.

"A scheme that is burning cash, their cash, taxpayers' cash to the tune of some $11 billion a month can not go on forever, Australians understand that," he said.

More than 1400 organisations within the 2830 postcode have had their applications for the wage subsidy processed, Australian Taxation Office data published on Treasury's website reveals.

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