• The federal and NSW governments have pledged to boost and expand the COVID-19 emergency payment and provide new cash flow support to businesses impacted by the Greater Sydney lockdown.
• Workers across the state who have lost hours will be eligible for up to $600 a week, while shuttered businesses will be flushed with payments of up to $10,000 a week.
• The combined measures are expected to cost the federal and state government a combined $500 million each week they’re in effect.
• Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

The federal and NSW governments have announced new and expanded funding measures for residents impacted by the Greater Sydney lockdown, promising to lift the rates and availability of the Commonwealth COVID-19 emergency payment, and introduce payments of up to $10,000 per week for businesses rattled by widespread industry closures.

Speaking in Sydney on Tuesday afternoon, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the “more severe, more dangerous” coronavirus outbreak rippling through the Greater Sydney region means upgraded funding measures are “in the national interest”.

“It needs to be targeted, it needs to be timely, it needs to be proportionate, scalable,” Morrison said, “and the administration of those supports need to be done in a way so it can get to people as simply and as quickly as is possible.”

The new measures will boost the Commonwealth COVID-19 emergency payment, providing workers who have lost between eight and twenty hours of work with $375, up from $325. Workers who have lost in excess of 20 hours of work will receive $600, up from $500.

The state government will step in to bankroll part of that payment. As a result, it will be available to all impacted workers across NSW, not just the Greater Sydney region or designated hotspot regions.

Access to the payment to those outside of Greater Sydney will open on Sunday.

Small businesses shuttered by lockdowns are also in line for further support.

Sole traders impacted by the public health measures will be eligible for payments of $1,000 a week, while businesses afflicted with more than a 30% drop in turnover will have up to 40% of their payroll reimbursed, maxing out at $10,000 a week.

Those payments will be contingent on impacted businesses not reducing their overall headcount, Morrison said.

NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said eligibility for the state’s upcoming small business grants will be improved, with access extended to companies with wages of up to $10 million.

The state is slated to provide $4.1 billion to the new supports, with the federal government covering more than $5 billion. The measures are expected to cost the federal and state government a combined $500 million for each week they’re in action, Morrison said.

Commercial and retail renters cannot be evicted for the next 60 days, Perrottet added, pledging to provide land tax rebates for landlords who negotiate rent reductions with their tenants.

Residential tenants cannot be evicted if they have experienced an income drop of 25%, the state treasurer added.

The elevated funding arrangements are the clearest evidence yet that Greater Sydney’s lockdown will face a considerable extension past Friday, after NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian today revealed 89 new cases of COVID-19 were detected in the community over Monday.

The details of that lockdown extension could arrive as early as Wednesday, Berejiklian said.

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