South Australian hotels want to reopen for at least 50 patrons from June 5
SA hoteliers say they must reopen ahead of schedule – and allow in far more patrons than currently planned for – or some pubs won’t survive. Thousands of jobs have already been lost.
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Hoteliers are pleading to be allowed to reopen for at least 50 patrons each ahead of the June long weekend, warning financially stricken pubs will soon hit the wall.
Urging Premier Steven Marshall to move forward the sector’s June 8 reopening date, Australian Hotels Association state chief Ian Horne said up to 20 per cent of SA’s pubs would be wiped out by the pandemic’s economic hit within a year.
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Mr Horne called for a June 5 reopening, with social-distancing and hygiene regimes, for up to 50 patrons.
He wants larger capacity city pubs to be allowed up to 50 people apiece in segmented bars, restaurants and other separate areas.
Mr Marshall on Tuesday night said he wanted to open up pubs, clubs, restaurants and cafes as soon as possible but in a sustainable, profitable fashion and without undoing the significant health success tackling the coronavirus.
Stressing the importance of following expert health advice, Mr Horne said the industry had asked for “a more generous interpretation” than the planned 20-patron capacity after the long weekend in ongoing talks with SA Health and state authorities.
“The longer hotels are unable to trade in any meaningful way … there’ll be more casualties. There’s an accumulation of debt and people’s cash is being chewed up by just the normal cost of maintaining a premises,” Mr Horne said.
“Let’s use the long weekend as the starting point to lift people’s spirits. No one should underestimate the threat to our industry, which is overwhelmingly small, medium and family-based businesses.
“We’ve survived world wars and the Great Depression but this is probably the single biggest social and economic challenge the hotel industry’s ever faced.”
Hospitality has been the state’s hardest hit jobs sector by the coronavirus pandemic, Australian Bureau of Statistics figures released Tuesday show, with almost one in three jobs lost since March 14.
With about 61,000 South Australians working in the accommodation and services sector before the crisis, it means an estimated 18,000 jobs have been lost.
After another day of zero coronavirus cases in SA, Mr Horne said 50 patrons, rather than the planned limit of 20, was needed to make most pubs viable. He argued reopening ahead of the long weekend would support regional tourism, saying there was limited dining in some country towns.
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He also questioned whether there was any evidence supporting the present ban on drinking alcohol with meals as part of outdoor dining for up to 10 people allowed for cafes and restaurants.
Mr Marshall would not be drawn on earlier openings or changes to patron limits but said conversations with the sector were ongoing. He said SA’s approach would be different to other states, where up to 20 patrons were already allowed in pubs and clubs, saying SA had been a national leader in opening up schools, regional travel, elective surgery and caravanning and camping.
“While some states get very excited about opening up for 10 patrons, what we have instead decided to do is sit down with the industry and work through identifying and mitigating the risks to try and get them back to sustainable and profitable services as quickly as possible,” he said.
“Continued good daily results and high testing levels will give the Government far more confidence that we can open up business as soon as possible, but in a sustainable and profitable way.”
Mr Marshall said having more people in supervised environments could reduce other social risks, such as problem gambling and domestic violence, even if there was no evidence of increases in SA.
“We realise that there are significant wellbeing problems associated with continued restriction and greater levels of isolation. But we are mindful that we don’t want it to occur in SA. When we look at health, economic and social, the social consideration is that broader wellbeing piece.”
In a sign the Government was keen on moving swiftly, the hospitality industry was among those sharing in $5.5 million for skills and hygiene training as part of a “COVID-clean toolkit”.
Deputy Lord Mayor Alex Hyde questioned why SA had not gone further in easing restrictions on dining and drinking when the state’s pandemic response was the envy of the world.
“Every other state and territory have now allowed, or has announced they will soon allow, alcohol with meals. Despite being the safest, South Australia has also been the slowest,” said Mr Hyde, a former staffer for federal SA Liberal Nicolle Flint.
Preston Hotels director Piers Schmidt, whose firm operates hotels including the Sussex at Walkerville, said economic factors needed to be weighed with health risks.
“Otherwise, we’re going to find a lot of small businesses won’t have the capacity to re-open at all,” he said.
Brew owners stunned after shock closure
A famous brewery has had its outside dining area shut down by police, despite operating on a a producers’ licence.
Old Port Rd’s Big Shed Brewing is well-known for its colourfully packaged and flavour-bending beers and stouts.
Co-owner Craig Basford said his business opened up its outdoor dining area last week, thinking it was allowed to serve food including “burgers as big as your head” under the relaxed restrictions as long as there was no booze sold.
However, he said a visit from “friendly” police forced a shutdown on a technicality.
As brewers, Big Shed runs under a producers’ licence, while new freedoms are kept for those operating as restaurants and cafes.
“We thought if licensed cafes and other venues can open but not sell booze that’s kind of weird but, fair enough, we’ll open and have an area because we are doing take aways anyway,” Mr Basford said.
“Ten people isn’t going to add to our labour cost, and if someone driving past wants to sit outside, we can do it.
“It is frustrating, because we are getting calls from customers … you go to the shops on Mother’s Day, and there’s no social distancing or anyone there enforcing it, and people are getting on packed trains.”
The Government referred a request for comment to police, who said: “Unfortunately only those venues to which this direction applies are to unlicensed restaurants and cafes, and those holding a restaurant and catering licence under the Liquor Licencing Act 1997.
“Other licence categories are not permitted to offer outdoor dining.”.
Tough balancing act for Premier
Analysis – Daniel Wills
Streets ahead in the health race, Premier Steven Marshall is now facing claims of falling behind in the bid to restart the economy to protect and restore jobs as he holds a hard line to avoid a second wave of COVID-19.
In many ways, SA has more freedoms than other states, having never given up things like gatherings of 10 people or school education, which are now being trumpeted as big steps elsewhere.
Regional tourism reopening in SA was a much-needed boost. But some of the most cherished things in our state, like having a beer at the pub when there’s a footy game on up the road, are slower coming here.
A few restrictions that don’t make common sense, like train carriages being packed and an outdoor dining area at a great local business like Big Shed being barren, now have people asking quiet questions about the wisdom of the plan. It’s fair enough to ask “How come you can have a drink in NSW, where they have more than 400 active cases, but we can’t celebrate our perfect score with a cold one at a beer garden just up the road?”.
The clear calculation the State Government here has made is there’s no point pleasing people now only to put lockdowns back in place a few weeks later because of a new wave of infection. Mr Marshall is seeing it as a marathon, not a sprint. He and SA Health chief public health officer Nicola Spurrier have immense goodwill and political capital in the bank, with results that speak for themselves.
He’s openly working on a plan for the critical pubs industry, and wants to take the time to get it right. But daily moves elsewhere will raise this question – are we getting the ghoulish balancing act between saving lives and livelihoods right and moving fast enough?