From the first flights out of Perth on Tuesday morning, everyone flying into an iron ore mine site owned by Fortescue Metals Group must have a rapid antigen test before boarding the plane.Once they are there, thermal imaging units will automatically and regularly take people’s temperatures. Rapid antigen tests are also available on site should there be any concerns.Scott Langdon, of KordaMentha, says the key psychological difference between last year and now is the loss of hope. David RoweChief executive Elizabeth Gaines says the company decided to invest in rapid antigen testing capabilities some months ago given the Pilbara’s remoteness meant it would be too difficult to wait for the results of PCR testing sent to Perth.This urgent option proved invaluable when there was a COVID-19 scare affecting the Cloudbreak mine site in Western Australia this month.But it has still meant protracted negotiations with the state health department over the use of rapid antigen testing on a case by case basis. Advertisement“Our preference would be that over time we get some clarity that it’s an acceptable form of testing if there were to be some other form of event,” Gaines says.Hodgepodge of rulesThousands of kilometres away, all staff working at 40 Commonwealth Bank branches in the COVID-19 hotspots of south-western and western Sydney voluntarily undertake rapid antigen tests three times a week. The tests take two minutes. Results come through in 10 minutes.And from now on, the NSW government has decreed all essential workers from those 12 local government areas can only go to work elsewhere if they have either had at least one vaccination or their employer uses rapid antigen testing.Rulings from the Therapeutic Goods Administration mean such employers must have health specialists to supervise at the point of care.Initial state government requirements to have those same key workers line up regularly for “surveillance” PCR testing, often for hours, proved unwieldly, particularly in an overloaded system.NSW hospitals are among those employers belatedly using rapid antigen tests instead to combat the dangerous jump in examples of staff catching or spreading the virus to others and patients.But the hodgepodge of rules and the ability of employers to use rapid antigen testing only compound the haphazard nature of Australia’s management of the delta variant.Rapid antigen testing, at home or at work, is now a standard weapon in many countries for fighting the spread of the virus.Despite the lack of consistent and clear advice nationally, bigger companies clearly have more resources to also make use of this defence.Not an option for small businessBut Australia’s small- and medium-sized enterprises are once again left scrambling to figure it out for themselves. Most small businesses certainly can’t afford to employ health specialists to supervise testing – as required by federal health rules.Nor, of course, can they compel their employees to be vaccinated. The Morrison government rejects the need or the notion of legislation to enforce this, while state government public health orders are not being adopted, other than a few specific industries, such as aged care.Instead, the practical bottom line is daily encouragement for those with symptoms to get PCR tests and everyone else to stay home if possible and get vaccinated.But this approach is clearly unable to quell the rising numbers of cases or lift the prospect of more months of lockdowns in NSW and Victoria and the risk of that in other states.NSW cases hitting another 830 on Sunday seem headed inexorably towards 1000, despite tougher restrictions, while Victoria’s quickly imposed hard lockdown has not been able to push down daily case numbers, with 65 reported on Sunday.Prime Minister Scott Morrison insists that as vaccination rates increase, the focus will shift from daily case numbers to how many people are becoming seriously ill and requiring hospitalisation.Hard lockdowns “are imposing a heavy toll”, he acknowledges, but argues they won’t be necessary for too much longer.SMEs can’t reinvent themselves againHow much longer? The prospect of the rest of this year leaves small- and medium-sized businesses on the front line of the struggle with crippling costs and uncertainty.Scott Langdon, of advisory and insolvency firm KordaMentha, believes it’s actually much worse this year than last for many SMEs in terms of financial and psychological resilience.“The key psychological difference is one of the loss of hope,” he says.That’s because, according to Langdon, SME’s did so much last year in terms of managing their businesses, motivating their staff, working with their creditors and landlords and re-shaping their businesses to make themselves as lean and fit as possible in order to survive. Yet they are being knocked over once more.“Now they think, ‘we are back here again. How long can I hold on?’ And financially, it’s noticeably hotter in the kitchen than it was last year. ‘I can’t reinvent my business because that’s what I did last year’.“How many times do I go to my landlord or insurance or bank and seek assistance? How many times can I seek extensions from my creditors and, on the flip side, people won’t give me extended credit. They want cash on delivery because they are stressed as well.”Langdon says that big businesses, in contrast, tend to have more levers to pull to cope with such stresses.“There’s a lot of cash around desperate to find a home,” he says. “The ability for corporates to source new cash, new equity, new debt, has never been greater, whereas small business don’t have the same ability to source financial solutions.”And Langdon argues that without the “hard, fast and clear response” of JobKeeper last year, the plethora of today’s state government payments, while welcome, seem to be slower, more confusing and have less impact.Great.
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