But with just 12 hours until regional Victoria was able to ease its restrictions, and Mildura businesses were preparing to emerge from lockdown, Acting Chief Health Officer Ben Cowie shifted the goalposts for some industries, including hospitality and beauty and hair salons.
By midnight, the new orders were in place.
Venues who don’t have all staff fully vaccinated were told they could continue to operate so long as all staff had at least one dose, but they cannot take the next step in the government’s roadmap and cannot allow more people in their doors.
This would mean they remain limited to 10 patrons indoors and 30 outdoors, a hammer blow to their ability to break even, let alone turn a profit.
If it sounds like cruel and unusual punishment of two industries that have suffered immeasurably during the past two years, it’s because it is.
Why them?
When you look at Victoria’s latest COVID-19 outbreak, the hospitality sector has been blameless, as have hair and beauty salons. In fact, you could argue that both those industries led the way in COVID safety protocols.
Even the government has admitted that the latest outbreak has been largely due to the virus spreading within homes and on construction worksites, which have been virtually uninterrupted over the past 18 months, and where poor COVID compliance has been a major issue. Yet those workers still have until the November 26 deadline to comply.
To again target hospitality workers and those in the hair and beauty industry while sparing all others is grossly unfair.
And to do so without fair warning is, as one Mildura business owner said, “a kick in the teeth”.
Business owners I spoke to said they were unsure whether they would have enough fully vaccinated staff to open in the weeks ahead.
One owner said most of his staff had received just one jab so far and were waiting for the second dose, something that can’t be fast-tracked for medical reasons.
These businesses and employees were complying in good faith with the rules set by the government. But then, after the stroke of a bureaucrat’s pen at midnight, the goalposts moved on them again.
Hospitality businesses are already facing massive worker shortages due to so many staff leaving the industry over the past 18 months.
Countless businesses have closed, others are on their knees. Yet the government is now threatening them with fines of up to $109,000 if they don’t comply with the newly minted rules, promising to dispatch COVID cops across the state this weekend to raid them at will.
At a time when these long-suffering industries were desperate for support, the last thing they needed was their government creating further uncertainty, angst and an environment of fear.
To say it doesn’t pass the pub test would be an understatement.
As locals, all we can do is get behind all our local businesses, show patience and understanding given the staff pressures they are facing, and help them get back on their feet. Unfortunately, life is not being made easy for them by a government that should have stuck to its word.
