Victoria’s event sector is braced for cancellations — but the state’s COVID-19 insurance scheme won’t fully pay out until a new lockdown is declared




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  • Three out of four live events in Victoria could be cancelled or postponed in the coming weeks, according to a new survey.
  • Business conditions are brutal despite the absence of an official COVID-19 lockdown, industry groups say.
  • A new state-run insurance scheme will only fully pay out if another state or federal lockdown is declared.
  • Visit Business Insider Australia’s homepage for more stories.

Three out of four live events in Victoria are likely to be cancelled or postponed over the next six weeks, an industry group claims, but limitations to the state’s $230 million COVID-19 insurance package mean organisers are unlikely to receive full compensation unless the state declares another lockdown.

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A snap survey of 410 Victorian live event organisers and workers, conducted by advocacy group Save Victorian Events, found that 48% expect to cancel an event by the end of February. A further 28% believe they will need to postpone.

Those findings, released Tuesday, speak to the ongoing wave of Omicron-variant COVID-19 infections, which is keeping nervous audiences away from live performances, community events and conferences.

At the same time, the return of density limits for entertainment venues, and the ban on indoor dancefloors, has limited the ability for event organisers to fully make up for the brutal venue closures of 2021.

Some large outdoor events have also faced knock-on effects from the virus. Organisers of heavy music festival Unify Forever postponed the event’s Victorian leg last week; with new COVID-19 infections stretching emergency services thin, organisers said they could no longer access the critical staff needed to safely host the event in January.

Despite the tide of cancellations and postponements predicted by the Victorian events sector, neither the state nor federal governments have officially declared lockdown restrictions forcing event operators to shut up shop.

However, industry advocates claim there’s little to separate today’s event sector struggles from the harsh business closures of 2020 and 2021.

“There is really no effective difference between a strong government health recommendation [to stay home] and a formal restriction,” a Save Victorian Events spokesperson said.

Event insurance policies valued at $87 million as payout questions loom

That pessimistic outlook comes just two weeks after the launch of the Victorian government’s new $230 million insurance scheme, designed to protect organisers whose events are cancelled due to COVID-19 restrictions.

The scheme provides coverage to events with an estimated revenue or cost of between $20,000 and $10 million, for a premium of between 2% and 4%.

Policy holders are entitled to claim for 100% of their event’s agreed value if a new government-backed lockdown forces its cancellation.

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Organisers are free to claim for 50% of their event’s value if they need to downsize or cancel due to new venue density requirements.

Major industry players like Live Performance Australia praised the announcement in November, describing it as a significant confidence boost to the hard-hit sector.

But as there is no ‘official’ lockdown to trigger the insurance policy, it is unclear how many organisers will actually recoup the full value of their cancelled events.

Some industry players have already noted this ‘gap’ in the system.

Speaking to The Age on Thursday, “Jagged Little Pill” executive producer Torben Brookman said policy holders are now in a “fairly ironic position”, where the launch of a new state-sanctioned lockdowns is the only way to receive full compensation through the scheme.

The Victorian Managed Insurance Authority (VMIA), the state government body administrating the COVID-19 Event Insurance scheme, has approved 137 policies with a cumulative agreed value of $87 million.

However, relatively few of those insurance policies have actually been claimed, despite cancellations rippling through the sector.

As of Thursday, the programme had circled 11 policy holders who could qualify for a payout, The Age reported. Those claims, if paid out, would have a cumulative value of $541,000.

None of those policy holders could expect to recoup 100% of their policy’s value, as there is no formal lockdown to trigger the maximum payout.

VMIA is slated to revisit the parameters of the scheme and consult with industry players once the initial $230 million pool is exhausted.

Industry leaders redouble calls for national insurance scheme

The Victorian scheme is not the only government intervention designed to mitigate economic damage to the events sector.

On Monday, the NSW Government revealed its own $43 million Event Saver fund, designed to prop up events cancelled or significantly disrupted by lockdowns and other public health orders.

The Australian Festival Association (AFA) said the fund will patch some of the financial holes caused by recent cancellations.

Even so, the organisation said a nationwide, Commonwealth-backed insurance scheme, building on the new support mechanisms provided by Victoria and NSW, is what the industry really needs.

“We continue to call on the Commonwealth Government to step in and co-contribute to current state-based insurance and cancellation schemes to enable this nationally touring industry to get back to delivering shows to fans across Australia,” AFA managing director Julia Robinson said in a statement.

To date, the federal government has been reluctant to sign on to any kind of holistic pandemic insurance mechanism.

For the time being, entertainment operators will need to rely on welcome but limited state-run solutions — or hope their audience’s pandemic fears dissipate, once and for all.

The post Victoria’s event sector is braced for cancellations — but the state’s COVID-19 insurance scheme won’t fully pay out until a new lockdown is declared appeared first on Business Insider Australia.

Source: Thanks msn.com