Businesses and the state opposition have called for rent relief as the recovery from the latest lockdown continues.
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After the state government provided rent relief for small businesses in previous lockdowns, Member for Ripon Louise Staley said the same system should be reintroduced.
"There was some rent relief for small businesses in the first round but now we've got so many small businesses that are in a situation where they can't trade or they can't trade properly, their rent is still due and, quite rightly, landlords still need to be paid," she said.
"What we're calling for is what happened before, which was if a landlord gave rent relief, then they should get land tax relief and it should be seamless."
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"It should be an automatic process because we're now at a point where there are so many small businesses that these repeated lockdowns have meant that they've exhausted all of their resources and they just can't pay the rent.
"That's not in anybody's interest because landlords will lose their tenants and, of course, small businesses will lose their businesses so we need to have a reinstatement of the ways that allow people to have land tax relief if they're giving rent relief to small businesses."
The state government said more than 96,000 businesses were paid more than $281 million in economic support on Monday, bringing the total payments for the most recent lockdown to $482 million.
Those same businesses also received $460.5 million in support following the previous lockdown in May and June.
Minister for Small Business Jaala Pulford said more support would be announced shortly.
"Small businesses are central players in every community across Victoria, and we're backing them at every step of this crucial fight," she said. "We're continuing to work hard on supporting local businesses and we will be able to provide more detail on that support in the coming days."
A concierge service is available to help businesses and sole traders seeking advice about business support, which can be accessed by calling 13 22 15.
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