The Business Council’s BizRebuild initiative has reached a significant milestone, with the scheme now having handed over $1 million in direct assistance to bushfire-affected communities.
The initiative, which began at the beginning of the year, has helped more than 770 businesses for them to stay afloat and able to keep their employees in work.
Under the program, businesses can claim either a $2000 re-tooling voucher to replace tools and equipment lost in the bushfire, or a $500 service voucher to cover the cost of seeking the help of local advisory services such as accounting or legal services.
Business Council chief executive, Jennifer Westacott, said the program has helped the local economies.
“Giving businesses the chance to re-tool and re-equip themselves quickly means they can get back to work quickly and keep workers in jobs,” Westacott said.
And BizRebuild chair, Sir Peter Cosgrove, said that BizRebuild has been instrumental in keeping the local communities strong as they deal not only with the after-effects of the bushfires but also the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
“Whether it is bushfires or global pandemics, we need businesses to pull through and keep communities alive and that’s why building resilience is absolutely crucial,” Cosgrove said. “In the wake of bushfires it was clear we needed to solve the immediate problem of cashflow, so that’s exactly what we did.”
To further assist with immediate relief efforts, BizRebuild has sent “flying squads” of business recovery, financial, mental health and other experts into the affected communities who will help locals plan for their recovery.
BizRebuild has been designed to run for five years to facilitate in the recovery of the local businesses so they can create jobs anew, rebuild stronger communities, and restore thriving local economies. In additon to immediate relief, the initiative has also started implementing a number of recovery and rebuilding projects to build and maintain long-term resilience of these communities.
