Overview
Free meals, free movies, free trips to cultural institutions: New South Wales residents, these are all on your summer agenda. As first announced back in October, the NSW Government is expanding its Dine & Discover program by giving everyone two extra $25 vouchers — and those additional freebies are being rolled out from today, Friday, November 26, Premier Dominic Perrottet has just revealed.
The aim of the initiative is to give everyone an extra incentive to hit up hospitality, arts and recreation venues, to help support them after what's been a struggling couple of years — to say the least. And yes, the arrival of the two new vouchers is timed just in time for summer.
If you've already registered for the program and have received your first four vouchers under the scheme, you'll start seeing the two extras in the Service NSW app from today — and they'll be in the app by next Friday, December 3, at the latest. If you haven't yet registered, you'll nab all six when you do.
Two more Dine & Discover vouchers will be hitting wallets from today. If you've not registered yet, you'll get all six vouchers once you sign up in the @ServiceNSW app. It's part of our economic recovery package and we know it works, so get out and support a local business. pic.twitter.com/us7eN3pNCo
— Dom Perrottet (@Dom_Perrottet) November 26, 2021
The new vouchers arrive more than a year after the $25 voucher scheme was first announced, with the initiative giving the state's residents access to vouchers to use at at restaurants, cafés, bars, wineries, pubs and clubs, cultural institutions, and live music and arts venues. Over the past 12 months, the program has been forced to change and adapt multiple times, especially since it initially rolled out statewide from mid-March.
The scheme's end date has also been pushed back again and again, and the initiative also widened to include takeaways midyear in response to Greater Sydney's lockdown.
If you need a refresher on how the vouchers work, the full Dine & Discover program now spans six vouchers in total (including these two newbies), which are available to everyone in NSW over the age of 18 until June 30, 2022. Three $25 vouchers can be used at restaurants, cafes, clubs and other food venues, and another three $25 vouchers are specifically for performing arts, cinemas, amusement parks and the like.
The vouchers can be used at a hefty number of participating COVID-safe registered businesses, with the full list available on the Service NSW website.
Kitti Gould
That said, you can't use them on tobacco, alcohol or gambling, and you can only use each voucher once, including if your transaction totals less than $25. Also, you'll need to use all of your vouchers separately.
To access the vouchers, you'll need a MyServiceNSW account — and the corresponding Service NSW app, so you can use the vouchers digitally.
The NSW Government's Dine & Discover scheme runs until Thursday, June 30, 2022. For more information, visit the government's website.
Top image: Cassandra Hannagan.