The Australian grape and wine industry welcomes the Australian Government’s JobKeeper Payment, which will help keep businesses afloat and keep people in rural and regional Australia in jobs.

Australian Grape & Wine (AGW) chief executive, Tony Battaglene said “All grape and wine businesses around Australia adapting to swift and frequent changes brought on by COVID-19, and many are facing the unfortunate task letting staff go, or closing their business.

“The JobKeeper payment will provide some hope to these business and their staff, and may be the difference between retaining skilled staff instead of laying them off.

“We thank the Minister for Agriculture, Drought and Emergency Management David Littleproud for his support for regional and rural Australian businesses.

“He is hearing our message that significant numbers of Australian grape and wine businesses are experiencing a big tourism drop-off that started with the bushfires at the beginning of the year, and has accelerated due to the restrictions on movement relating to COVID-19.”

AGW encourages all businesses to look into this initiative to check their eligibility for funding via the Government’s website.

“We have taken a hit with the fires, drought, and now coronavirus, and we welcome this initiative from the Government,” Battaglene said.

“If we can keep regional and rural agricultural businesses going through these unprecedented times, we’ll be well-placed to do our bit to help the economy and rural and regional communities bounce back”.

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