{"id":7230,"date":"2020-07-08T22:25:33","date_gmt":"2020-07-08T22:25:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=7230"},"modified":"2020-07-08T22:25:33","modified_gmt":"2020-07-08T22:25:33","slug":"city-taskforce-update-3-july-2020","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/07\/08\/city-taskforce-update-3-july-2020\/","title":{"rendered":"City Taskforce Update 3 July 2020"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>MEETING OF THE CITY TASKFORCE<\/strong><br \/>\nThe City Taskforce, a collaboration of 17 leading organisations and employers, chaired by Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes City of Newcastle, held its fifth meeting today via Zoom. The Taskforce was formed to develop a collaborative approach to the City\u2019s response to COVID-19, from crisis to recovery and beyond. City leaders focused their discussion on the second edition of The Newcastle Response, highlighting\u00a0significant\u00a0impacts to the tourism sector,\u00a0as well as commercial rental vacancies across the\u00a0city\u00a0and\u00a0eroded\u00a0business confidence in the context of further job losses and economic impacts as a result of COVID-19.<br \/>\n<strong>The Newcastle Response \u2013 Tourism Sector\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\nCity leaders endorsed the second Newcastle Response, which provides local insights on one of the industries hardest hit by COVID-19: tourism.\u00a0Developed in collaboration with representatives of Newcastle Airport and\u00a0Alloggio,\u00a0and supported unanimously\u00a0today\u00a0by the City Taskforce,\u00a0the document recognises the valuable contribution the tourism sector makes to the city\u2019s vibrancy and its role in sustaining local jobs.\u00a0It\u00a0calls upon State and Federal decision-makers to:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Support an interstate destination marketing campaign for Greater Newcastle, as submitted by Newcastle\u00a0Airport and partners in June 2020.<\/li>\n<li>List Newcastle as a destination independent of the North Coast on Destination NSW\u2019s\u00a0websites.<\/li>\n<li>Make available additional tourism product development training from Destination NSW, and pilot new training through the NSW First Program in Newcastle in 2020\/21.<\/li>\n<li>Advocate for the reversal of about 200 Hunter Jetstar job losses, including 112 stemming from the closure of Newcastle\u2019s Jetstar maintenance base.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>The Taskforce also recognised the need for\u00a0JobKeeper\u00a0to be extended or alternative\u00a0targeted support measures to be introduced for tourism businesses and other sectors that are \u201con ice\u201d. Despite some restrictions easing,\u00a0discretionary spending is down 58% at pubs and venues\u00a0and\u00a034% on travel compared to baseline levels.\u00a0Among those travel and accommodation services suffering the biggest downturn\u00a0are\u00a0those that derive their revenue from regional, interstate and international travellers\u00a0due to ongoing border closures.<br \/>\n<strong>Commercial rental vacancies\u00a0erode\u00a0business confidence\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\nThe Taskforce heard how commercial rental vacancies across Newcastle had\u00a0significantly increased\u00a0from February to June, changing the\u00a0city\u2019s streetscape and\u00a0eroding\u00a0business confidence \u2013 an\u00a0issue not localised to Newcastle, but which can be seen around the world as a result of COVID-19.<br \/>\nCity leaders raised the concept of applying the Renew Newcastle model more broadly to redevelop and revitalise commercial precincts\u00a0and the city\u2019s overall amenity\u00a0in parallel with discussions with the Department of Planning, Industry and Environment\u00a0around zoning and the night-time economy.\u00a0Leaders agreed to workshop this further with key members of the City Taskforce,\u00a0including the Hunter Business Chamber, Colliers\u00a0International,\u00a0Alloggio\u00a0and Independent Creative Alliance Newcastle.<br \/>\nThe Newcastle Response \u2013 Tourism Sector also advocates for the extension of the Retail and Other Commercial Leases (COVID-19) Regulation 2020.<br \/>\n<strong>City Taskforce work streams update\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\nCity of Newcastle received $4.2 million in applications to its Industry Response Program, offering\u00a0targeted grants\u00a0to\u00a0businesses, groups and organisations representing\u00a0those industries hardest\u00a0hit by COVID-19.\u00a0A funding pool of $500,000 was made available by the City of Newcastle, with the successful applicants\u00a0from a wide cross-section of the community\u00a0\u2013 including live music, small business, tourism and the arts \u2013\u00a0to be announced in the coming weeks.<br \/>\nEngagement with the local evidence base working group continues to provide\u00a0valuable, granular insights specific to the region, with representatives from the University of Newcastle, Hunter New England Health, Regional NSW, NIB and the City of Newcastle in\u00a0the\u00a0areas of research,\u00a0innovation and data science.<br \/>\nThe region\u2019s youth unemployment rate remains a concern, affecting more than one in four young people.\u00a0The COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to have a generational impact on this cohort in terms of skills and employment gaps. This City Taskforce work stream has seen the establishment of a working group with\u00a0representatives of Hunter Young Professionals, Youth Council, Hunter Regional Employment Facilitator, Community Disability Alliance Hunter\u00a0and the arts and tourism sectors. Together they will look at creative ways of tackling the youth unemployment challenge.<br \/>\n<strong>Vale Matthew Morris, former Charlestown MP\u00a0<\/strong><br \/>\nTaskforce members acknowledged the passing of former State Member for Charlestown, Matthew Morris, who sadly died of brain cancer. Mr Morris,\u00a051, served two terms as the Member for Charlestown, elected\u00a0in 2003 and again in 2007, and while he was a private person after he left office, his contribution to the community is his legacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MEETING OF THE CITY TASKFORCE The City Taskforce, a collaboration of 17 leading organisations and employers, chaired by Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes City of Newcastle, held its fifth meeting today via Zoom. The Taskforce was formed to develop a collaborative approach to the City\u2019s response to COVID-19, from crisis to recovery and beyond. City leaders &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/07\/08\/city-taskforce-update-3-july-2020\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;City Taskforce Update 3 July 2020&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newcastle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7230\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}