I urge newsagents and their suppliers to send this, or their own version of this, to politicians to drive maximum interest in a 3 months rent free campaign, to achieve for others what was achieved yesterday in WA. Here is the suggested text:
I am a small business retailer and retailers like me need your help. Thanks to strong leadership, federal and state / territory governments have flattened the COVID-19 curve. A consequence has been an extraordinary drop in retail foot traffic.
While we appreciate the 25% rent waiver we can negotiate with our landlord thanks to the mandatory code, it will not help. There are retailers like us who can’t cover wages let alone the 75% of usual rent. JobKeeper helps employees, not in paying rent.
We urge you to advocate for an immediate 3 month waiver of all rent, funded by government. Without this we think many independent local shops will close, families will lose their homes and demands on Centrelink dramatically increase.
This is urgent. Please help. Small businesses need you.
Here are email addresses you could use in addition to other state and federal politician email addresses you find – especially state leaders in your area.
senator.cormann@aph.gov.au
senator.cash@aph.gov.au
josh.frydenberg.mp@aph.gov.au
attorney@ag.gov.au
Christian.Porter.MP@aph.gov.au
department@treasury.gov.au
Peter.Dutton.MP@aph.gov.au
Karen.Andrews.MP@aph.gov.au
Chris.Bowen.MP@aph.gov.au
jim.chalmers.mp@aph.gov.au
mark.dreyfus.mp@aph.gov.au
senator.katy.gallagher@aph.gov.au
Brendan.O’Connor.MP@aph.gov.au
For the Prime Minister, use a feedback form on his website.
The more newsagents and their suppliers engage with this campaign the better.
I emailed 1,700 newsagents about this yesterday morning. I have also engaged with newsXpress members about this and they have been engaging with politicians, sending the email far and wide.
This is an important lobbying campaign by our channel. Even if your business is not down in revenue, you have colleagues who are and they need your support. The email have been written with that in mind.
How about contacting all State Government memebers as the leases act is a State issue different Sate by State and by doing this it would cover both parties involved.
As I note in the post itself.
Graeme in NSW I also suggest contacting the NSW Minister for Finance & Small Business the Hon Damien Tudehope.
Here is a link to his email contact
http://www.nsw.gov.au/nsw-government/ministers/minister-for-finance-and-small-business
I agree with Mark we need to be lobbying the Federal Ministers as well as our local reps and the States. They are keeping the State’s honest and attempting to keep them all on the same page.
PS it is already apparent that many more retail businesses than people will die from this virus in this country.
Thanks Steve, I am talking with some one in Govt at the moment re the leasing and whilst there are local members etc to go through, there are other channels that are directly connected to this issue. So to save referring from one member to another I will contact your link directly.
i am not camparing the virus fatality rate to small business because I can’t. However it’s not acceptable to cop this crap from Landlords when everyone is seeking genuine co-operation to survive and the co-operation intended by the Cabinet has not been met. Within this some small businesses were very fragile and may not have survived anyway however there is no need for landlords to make it so they -the borderliners -some published here) to hasten or determine their demise.