Business Grants

The Defence Global Competitiveness Grants will help Australian SMEs to invest in projects that build export capability to build a stronger, more sustainable and globally competitive Australian defence industry. The Defence Export Strategy defines Australian defence exports as “any defence-specific or dual-use goods or services exported by Australian defence industry, including as part of a supply chain, that are intended for a defence or national security end-user”.

Funding is for up to 50% of eligible project costs.

Project activities can include:

• buying, leasing, constructing, installing or commissioning of capital equipment including specialist software to enhance cyber security.
• design, engineering and commissioning activities.
• workforce training and accreditations.

The objective of the program is to help primary producers and primary production enterprises impacted by the February and March 2022 NSW Severe Weather and Flooding events to rebuild and recover in the medium to longer term with the aim of supporting job security, future resilience and enabling future production.

The Critical Producer Grant is available to primary producers and primary production enterprises in targeted industries impacted by and operating in Local Government Areas declared under the February and March 2022 NSW Severe Weather and Flooding.

Primary producers and primary production enterprises who have been approved for the full value of the $75,000 Special Disaster Grantlaunch in the agriculture, horticulture and aquaculture industry sectors are considered eligible for additional recovery support through the Critical Producer Grant. Forestry support is available for private native forestry leaseholders and timber plantation owners.

Targeted Industries

• Agriculture – dairy, extensive livestock (sheep and cattle), intensive livestock (pork and poultry), apiculture and broadacre cropping
• Aquaculture – oysters, mussels and fisheries
• Horticulture – turf, vegetables, berries, cut flowers and plant nurseries, perennial tree crops (nut crops, tea tree etc)
• Forestry – private native forests and timber plantations.

Support available per sector

• Dairy – up to $100,000 per applicant
• Extensive livestock – up to $75,000 per applicant
• Intensive livestock – up to $50,000 per applicant
• Apiculture – up to $50,000 per applicant
• Broadacre cropping – up to $75,000 per applicant
• Aquaculture – up to $30,000 per applicant
• Fisheries – up to $30,000 per applicant
• Turf – up to $75,000 per applicant
• Vegetables, berries, cut flowers and plant nurseries – up to $30,000 per applicant
• Perennial tree crops – up to $75,000 per applicant
• Private native forests – up to $10,000 per applicant.

The Wine Tourism and Cellar Door Grant program supports producers who add value by encouraging visitors to wine regions. Wine and cider producers will be able to access an annual grant reflective of their eligible physical cellar door sales.

The program is part of a coordinated suite of measures developed with the Australian wine industry after extensive consultations on reforms to the Wine Equalisation Tax (WET) rebate arrangements.

The objective of the Wine Tourism and Cellar Door Grant is to support producers who add value by encouraging visitors to wine regions, and thereby encourage wine tourism.

Wine or cider producers who have met the eligibility criteria will be able to access an annual grant of up to $100,000 (GST exclusive) for their eligible rebatable domestic cellar door sales. Total funding under the grant program will be capped at $10 million each financial year.

To be eligible for the Wine Tourism and Cellar Door Grant applicants must:

1. be a wine or cider producer
2. be a legal entity registered for GST and with an active ABN
3. have made at least $1,207,000 (GST exclusive) in sales of rebatable wine in the relevant financial year
4. accrue rebatable domestic cellar door sales in excess of any such sales used to meet the $1,207,000 (GST exclusive) threshold in the relevant financial year
5. have paid the WET on all eligible sales used as part of the application
6. have owned or leased a physical cellar door in Australia in the relevant financial year, and/or their related entity/ies have owned or leased a physical cellar door in Australia in the relevant financial year.
7. have a liquor licence valid in the relevant financial year

The Support Plantation Establishment Program will run over 4 years from 2023–24 to 2026–27. The funding will support the establishment of new long-rotation softwood and hardwood plantation forests and assist the sector to respond to the projected growth in demand for domestically sourced timber resources. Through focusing on long-rotation plantation forests , the program’s key intended outcomes are to increase domestic timber supply, particularly construction and manufacturing timber resources, and to contribute to Australia’s carbon emissions reduction commitments.

The objectives of the program are to:

• increase future plantation forest resources available for processing, as well as for plantation forest management, harvesting and haulage employment
• support private industry, First Nations businesses, farm foresters and state and territory forestry bodies to expand the Australian plantation forest estate
• contribute to meeting Australia’s carbon emission reduction targets, including under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, and the Kyoto Protocol to the Climate Change Convention.

The intended outcomes of the program are to:

• increase domestic timber supply, particularly construction and manufacturing timber resources, to contribute to the demands of the Australian market
• support private industry, First Nations businesses, farm foresters and state and territory forestry bodies to reduce their carbon footprint by storing carbon in plantation trees and contribute to Australia’s carbon emission reduction targets
• support the retention or creation of regional jobs and support for regional communities.

Funding will be available across multiple rounds from 2023–24 to 2026–27 for this grant opportunity.
The first round opens on 21 June 2023 and closes on 24 January 2024. The first round is comprised of 3 funding opportunities, called batches:

• The first batch opens on 21 June 2023 and closes on 15 August 2023.
• The second batch opens on 16 August 2023 and closes on 25 October 2023.
• The third batch opens on 26 October 2023 and closes on 24 January 2024.

Details on the dates of future rounds will be made available when possible, however it is anticipated the second round will open on 26 January 2024.

The Australian Government will provide funding of $2,000 (GST exclusive) per 1 hectare of new long-rotation plantation forest established.

• The minimum grant amount is $40,000 (GST exclusive).
• There is no maximum grant amount, provided grant funding is available.

Grantees are required to provide a co-contribution at least equal to the grant amount awarded. See section 2 for further details on how this can be demonstrated.

CO2 utilisation technologies offer opportunities to abate emissions while creating commercially valuable products. They offer opportunities for Australian businesses to secure new markets and job opportunities across carbon-neutral carbonates, building materials, chemicals and synthetic fuels. Despite the significant potential for these products, the associated technologies typically remain in infancy.

The program seeks to support the advancement of the CO2 capture and CO2 utilisation technologies that will be critical to achieving domestic and global emissions abatement objectives. The program will drive further research, development and demonstration (RD&D) of novel or emerging CO2 capture and CO2 utilisation technologies to broaden CCUS applications to address wider industrial emissions, including hard-to-abate sectors, and to develop low-carbon products.

The program will run over 8 years from 2023-24 to 2030-31.

The objectives of the program are to:

• accelerate the development of emerging priority CO2 capture technologies, including Direct Air Capture (DAC), Bio-Energy with Carbon Capture and Storage (BECCS) and/or CO2 utilisation technologies
• support RD&D to advance technological and commercial readiness of CCUS in hard-to-abate industries such as cement, chemicals and steel
• demonstrate verifiable permanence of CO2 sequestered via a range of utilisation applications
• support global CCUS capability development.

The intended outcomes of the program are to:

• broaden the pathways for Australia to abate CO2 emissions and meet domestic and international climate commitments
• demonstrate the technological capability of novel or emerging technologies in the CCUS chain through pilot and demonstration scale projects in Australian conditions
• improve the abatement potential of CCUS technologies
• bring down the cost of CCUS deployment at scale
• demonstrate the business models for tying a broader set of industrial or Carbon Dioxide Removal (CDR) projects into geological sequestration or CO2 utilisation opportunities.

The grant opportunity will be assessed through a two-stage competitive selection process to test the business cases of proposals that seek funding under the program. You will first submit an Expressions of Interest (EOI) at Stage 1 and if shortlisted, you will be invited to submit an application at Stage 2.

This grant opportunity was announced in alignment with the Powering the Regions Fund (PRF) objective of supporting the development of new clean energy industries.

Funding of $200 million has been allocated to the Critical Inputs to Clean Energy Industries – Cement, Lime, Alumina and Aluminium Sectors to help these sectors maintain a presence in Australia and continue to deliver critical inputs for the infrastructure and supply chains needed for Australia to be a renewable energy powerhouse.

The objectives of this grant opportunity are to:

• support and sustain sovereign manufacturing capability during the net zero transformation
• ensure the continued availability of locally produced, cement, lime, alumina and aluminium, which are critical inputs to the clean energy supply chain
• support the development of low emissions cement, lime, alumina and aluminium sectors consistent with the Australian Government’s climate commitments
• advance the development of new clean energy industries, aligned with Australia’s ambition to become a renewable energy powerhouse
• reduce the risk of carbon leakage, which occurs when a business responds to emissions reduction policies by moving emissions-intensive production to a country with less stringent policies
• encourage collaboration on decarbonisation planning within each hard-to-abate sector.

This grant assists regional NSW businesses in identified industries attract skilled and specialised employees from NSW metropolitan areas, interstate or internationally, to regional NSW.

Eligible costs covered by this grant, include the following relocation expenses:

• furniture removal including removalist services or trailer/truck or ute hire to relocate the employee’s home/residence
• pet boarding for up to three months
• travel for employee and immediate family to relocate
• temporary accommodation for up to three months, including hotel, motel, Airbnb and boarding house accommodation
• furniture storage for up to three months

Up to $1000 of the grant may be accessed to support an in-person candidate interview, or pre-employment site-visit (payable if candidate is successfully employed).

Eligible businesses can also claim up to $2500, as part of their total grant, to access qualified recruitment services, or HR professionals, to provide tailored recruitment assistance for the pre-approved role/s. The business can apply to be reimbursed once a candidate has been successfully employed.

To be eligible for funding, eligible businesses must be operating within an eligible industry aligned with key NSW Government policies, priorities, and strategies. Examples of eligible industries include:

• agribusiness and forestry
• resources and mining
• tourism (where regionally significant and/or iconic)
• health and aged care (where serving populations from out of region)
• freight and logistics
• advanced manufacturing
• renewable energy
• technology-enabled primary industry.

To apply for a Regional Skills Relocation Grant, eligible businesses must be operating within an eligible industry and:

• be relocating to, or setting up in, regional NSW and creating at least five new ongoing full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs (a mix of skilled and unskilled positions) in the local community, or
• already operating in regional NSW and seeking to recruit eligible employees. 

Eligible business must be seeking eligible employees. Eligible employees are skilled workers that:

• are relocating from a metropolitan area within NSW, or from another location outside NSW to regional NSW, to a residence that is at least 50 kilometres from the original residence, and is:
  • within the same Functional Economic Region as the eligible business
    OR
  • within 100 kilometres of the eligible business 
• are Australian citizens or permanent residents on the date they start employment
• have an occupation on the Commonwealth Skilled Occupation List for the Skilled Work Regional (Provisional) visa (subclass 491 and 489)launch. This list of occupations is specifically designed to meet the needs of regional Australia. At the Department’s discretion, other occupations may be considered if there is a demonstrated need.

If you're a small business or a not-for-profit organisation in NSW and you've been directly impacted by storms and floods from 4 August 2022 or 14 September 2022 onwards, you may be eligible for a storm and flood disaster recovery small business grant.

This disaster recovery grant of up to $50,000 is to help pay for the costs of clean-up and reinstatement of a small business or not-for-profit organisation’s operations.

Traineeships are a proven pathway to well-paid jobs in a diverse range of careers. In NSW, traineeships are also fee free.

There are more than 390 traineeship courses funded in NSW, in a range of industries including early childhood, health and allied services, business, IT, hospitality and warehouse operations.

Fee free traineeships are available to NSW trainees – including school-based trainees whose training:

• is funded under the NSW Government’s Smart and Skilled Program
• commenced on or after 1 January 2020.

If you have previously commenced your Smart and Skilled traineeship training before 1 January 2020 and are returning to a traineeship after 1 January 2020, you will be eligible for fee free for the remainder of your training if your traineeship course or your employer has changed.

Each student is limited to a maximum of commencing three fee free traineeships under this initiative.

Rural GPs providing unsupervised anaesthetics, obstetrics, surgery and/or emergency medicine may be eligible for the Rural Procedural Grants Program (RPGP) to help maintain and update your skills.

The Rural Procedural Grants Program (RPGP) provides financial assistance to GPs who provide procedural and/or emergency medicine services in unsupervised settings in rural and remote areas. This government funding supports GPs with access to relevant educational activities to maintain or update their procedural and/or emergency medicine skills.

Procedural GPs can receive up to $20,000 per financial year, and GPs providing hospital-based emergency services can receive up to $6000 per financial year. Additional funding of $6000 per financial year is available for eligible GPs providing emergency mental health services.

The NSW Government will reimburse the stamp duty paid on purchases of new or used full battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and hydrogen fuel cell electric vehicles (FCEVs), with a dutiable value up to and including $78,000.

Within 15 business days from the completed application submission, Revenue NSW will review information provided and will notify applicants if they have been successful.

If a refund is to be granted, Revenue NSW will proceed to transfer the funds to the bank account nominated by the customer within 5 business days.

Under this grant opportunity, Australian Government funded aged care providers, both residential and home care providers, will be able to apply for reimbursement of sick leave payments for directly employed permanent and casual workers, where the eligible employee is unable to attend work due to a COVID-19 infection and has insufficient sick leave.

The Grant opportunity will be available for claiming for periods after 1 April 2023 and will reimburse sick leave expenses incurred up to 31 December 2023. Eligible providers will have until 16 February 2024 to submit a claim for payments.
The Grant will be paid to Australian Government funded aged care providers, not individual workers, with the expectation that providers have already paid the staff their sick leave and then use this as an opportunity to seek reimbursement.

Grants will be paid to aged care providers who are able to demonstrate they paid sick leave to their directly employed permanent and casual staff who have insufficient sick leave, rather than payments direct to individuals. Evidence of the payment of sick leave balances for the period of time being claimed and employment status will be required.

There is no maximum grant amount to an individual employer, but grants cannot exceed the amount of available funds. The amount of Aged Care Worker COVID-19 Leave Payment (COVID-19 Leave Payment) that is payable is determined by the number of hours each eligible person would have worked per week during their period of paid sick leave.

The purpose of the 2023 COVID-19 Aged Care Support Program grant opportunity is to support providers to transition towards managing the costs of COVID-19 outbreaks as part of their business-as-usual arrangements. The Program will reimburse approved aged care providers to maintain preparedness for, and respond to, outbreaks in the 2023 calendar
year for eligible expenditure incurred in managing direct impacts of COVID-19 up to a maximum grant value per  operational place for residential aged care providers or number of home care packages for home care providers.

The objective of the program is to support the provision of safe and quality care for older Australians in their choice of
care through regulatory activities, collaboration with the aged care sector and consumers, as well as capacity building and awareness raising activities.

The intended outcomes of the program are:

• consumers of Aged Care Services directly impacted by COVID-19, experience safe and quality care; and
• the financial costs of managing direct impacts of COVID-19 are reduced for eligible Aged Care services

For the Reimbursement Stream, the government will reimburse up to a capped amount based on the number of operational places for residential aged care providers or number of home care packages for home care providers.

This includes:

• • Residential Aged Care and NATSIFACP services, the maximum grant value has two components: a base funding allocation of $20,000 plus a funding allocation of $2,000 for each operational place.
• • Home Care services, the maximum grant value has a single component: a funding allocation of $650 per client.

The objective of the program is to incentivise voluntary uptake of ADS-B equipment in Australian– registered aircraft operating under Visual Flight Rules (VFR) to improve safety and efficiency for Australian airspace users.

The intended outcome of the program is improved safety and efficiency of Australian airspace, through extension of ADS-B technology to the Australian VFR aircraft fleet to provide:

• better situational awareness for pilots through improved electronic visibility of nearby airborne VFR aircraft
• enhanced search and rescue capabilities through improved air traffic information
• air traffic controllers with additional and accurate automated aircraft position information of VFR aircraft
  

The program funds two classes of eligible ADS-B equipment (see Appendix A):

• installed ADS-B equipment that air traffic controllers can use for aircraft separation purposes (referred to as ADS-B), or
• portable ADS-B equipment for local electronic traffic information purposes (referred to as ADS-B EC).

The grant amount will be up to 50 per cent of eligible project expenditure (grant percentage). The maximum grant amount is $5,000 per eligible aircraft. Only one grant per aircraft and per device is permitted. You can apply for multiple grants if you own more than one eligible aircraft. A grant may be made for each eligible aircraft for an ADS-B or an ADS-B EC, but not both

From 1 July 2022 to 30 June 2024, the Australian Apprenticeships Incentive System will provide broad support to the economy through wage subsidies for eligible employers in priority occupations. Priority occupations are those listed on the Australian Apprenticeships Priority List.

The objective of the Australian Apprenticeships Incentives Program is to contribute a highly skilled and relevant Australian workforce that supports economic sustainability and competitiveness.

This is achieved by encouraging:

• genuine opportunities for skills-based training and development of employees; and
• people to enter into skills-based training through an Australian Apprenticeship.

The Australian Apprenticeships Incentives Program contains a range of payments. Eligibility criteria apply to all Australian Government Australian Apprenticeships Incentives payments. Further information regarding eligibility can be obtained from your Australian Apprenticeship Support Network (AASN) provider.

Support through the Australian Apprenticeships Incentives Program is also provided to employers of Australian Apprentices working towards a Priority Occupation. The eligible Priority Occupations are Aged Care, Child Care, Disability Care Workers and Enrolled Nurses.

There are a range of financial and non-financial supports available, including:

• Commencement payments
• Retention payment
• Recommencement payment
• Completion payment
• Wage subsidy
• Identified skill shortage payment
• Assistance for apprentices with a disability

The Elsa Dixon Aboriginal Employment Grant (EDAEG) adopts a number of strategies to develop and support Aboriginal people through the creation of training and employment opportunities. Promoting diversity, innovation and service responsiveness in the NSW workforce, the Elsa Dixon Aboriginal Employment Grant subsidises the salary, development and support costs of Aboriginal employees in public service agencies and local government authorities.

Grant Elements

• Permanent Ongoing Employment – $20,000 up to $40,000 to support the creation of permanent employment.
• Temporary (Term Employment) Secondment – $20,000 up to $40,000 (dependant on the term of position) to support a temporary position of up to 12 months that offers significant skill development for a permanent employee.
• School-based Apprenticeships and Traineeships – $10,000 one off payment to support school-based apprenticeships and traineeships.
• Post School Element - $10,000 up to $20,000 (Part - Time or Full- Time Employment Status) to support the continuation of employment for a learner who successfully completed a High School Certificate (HSC, Year 12) in the previous calendar year.

You can only apply for concessional this loan if your small business is currently or has been supplying goods or services relating to primary production to farm businesses in an affected area. This loan is not available to farm businesses.

The loan is for ten years and has no fees, 2 years interest free, 3 years interest only and 5 years principal and interest.

It may be used for:

• refinance your debt
• pay suppliers
• pay for operating expenses
• pay salaries, wages and rent

The Impact Investment Ready Growth Grant provides impact businesses and mission-driven organisations with grants of up to $140,000 for business, financial, legal and other capacity building support from providers to secure investment.

Growth Grants were created in recognition of the potential for impact investing to change the way Australia addresses social issues and the important role that access to capital can play in delivering better outcomes for people and communities. They support enterprises that are high growth, can deliver positive social outcomes and have the potential to secure capital investment.

The Newsagents Assistance Fund assists eligible agents to update their NSW Lotteries retail image and fit-out to align with the NSW Lotteries brand.

The Newsagents Assistance Fund is available to NSW Lotteries Agents that were active on 30 January 2015

Trial a young person to find out if they're the right fit for your business and get $1000 to help cover the costs of the trial. During the trial, you don't pay the young person. Instead, the Australian Government gives them $200 a fortnight on top of their income support and covers their insurance.

Businesses can also receive up to $10,000 (GST inclusive) through a Youth Bonus wage subsidy if they hire an eligible young person between 15 and 24 years of age.

The young person must:

• be a fully eligible participant, commenced with a jobactive or Transition to Work provider
• have received employment services from a provider (jobactive, Transition to Work, Disability Employment Services or Community Development Programme provider) continuously for the last six months
• have mutual obligation requirements at the time they commence in the wage subsidised job
• not been in a pre-existing employment relation with you in the previous six months
• not be an immediate family member.