Riverina residents have been encouraged to get out and about when the NSW government hands out vouchers that can be spent on dining and entertainment.
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Everyone over the age of 18 will receive four $25 vouchers through the Service NSW mobile app, with two of them to be spent at entertainment venues and the other two to be spent at cafes, clubs, and restaurants.
The vouchers come with several big asterisks: they must be used in an eligible COVID-safe business, they cannot be used for alcohol, and each one must be used in one sitting with no carry-over.
The vouchers will not be coming in time for Christmas, with the rollout currently planned for early 2021.
Retail worker Abby Garrod said the vouchers would brighten up her day and help fuel her expensive coffee habit.
"If it's a free $100 I'd spend it on coffee. I'm definitely a coffee drinker and that's an expense nobody wants to pay for," Ms Garrod said.
"For the entertainment side I'd prefer to spend it on food and go down to the park and chill there. I'm more of an outside sort of a person. But if I had to give it to any business I'd probably go bowling."
Big W worker Robyn Crouch said she'd have "no problems at all" spending $100, saying she would spend it together with the girls from work.
"We try to go once a week for dinner, just a group of four or five of us girls," Ms Crouch said.
"We could easily find ways to spend $100. It's a great idea."
Isaac Houssenloge said he was more sceptical about the voucher program, saying that it was a move by the government to win voters over with their own money.
"It sounds generous, but it's taxpayers' money," Mr Houssenlodge said.
"Hopefully it's handed out to people who will make good use of it."
The voucher program was designed to help some of the service industries and businesses hit hardest by the COVID-19 lockdown.
Other emergency stimulus measures to help struggling businesses include an increase in the payroll tax threshold from $1 million to $1.2 million.
The NSW payroll tax rate itself will be slashed to the lowest in the country, from 5.45 per cent to 4.85 per cent.
The budget forecasts a deficit of $16 billion in 2020-21.
Kenji Sato
Kenji Sato is a handsome journalist at The Daily Advertiser who enjoys writing flattering bios about himself in the third person. He can be contacted by email at kenji.sato@dailyadvertiser.com.au or by mobile on 0448 927 612.
Kenji Sato is a handsome journalist at The Daily Advertiser who enjoys writing flattering bios about himself in the third person. He can be contacted by email at kenji.sato@dailyadvertiser.com.au or by mobile on 0448 927 612.
