The hospitality industry is calling on the Federal Government for a targeted stimulus package as businesses feel the pinch from the snap greater Brisbane lockdown.

Wes Lambert, CEO of Restaurant and Catering Australia, said many businesses would have already bought their produce on hand before the lockdown was announced.

“Three days of restaurants, cafes, coffee shops and catering revenue in south east Queensland is worth 50 million dollars,” he told Scott Emerson.

He said businesses were unsure what to do now, if the lockdown is extended.

“Having this lockdown which we understand is the best health response, on the back of the end of JobKeeper is devastating to the hospitality industry,” he said.

“We absolutely are going to need a bespoke and targeted stimulus much more than the tourism package.”

He said it was incumbent on the government to provide more support.

“We have called upon the Federal Government to take the nearly $4 billon from the failed JobMaker program and redirect those … funds to tourism, hospitality, and arts and entertainment,” he said.

“We are still devastated, we are still in COVID crisis, we are not learning to live with COVID, we are going back to the same lockdowns and restrictions that we had in the first few months of COVID.”

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‘Feel like crying’: Cafe owner says snap lockdowns could force their closure