Coffee king Phillip Di Bella to defy mandate banning unvaccinated people from Queensland venues
Brisbane coffee baron Phillip Di Bella looks set for a showdown with authorities over Covid vaccinations, saying he won’t discriminate against who comes into his venue.
QLD Business
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Brisbane coffee king Phillip Di Bella plans to defy the state government’s mandate banning unvaccinated staff, customers and business owners from Queensland venues next month.
Mr Di Bella said it was a human rights issue and his venue The Coffee Commune at Bowen Hills would not discriminate.
His comments follow Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s announcement on Tuesday that people without Covid vaccinations would not be allowed in pubs, cafes, cinemas, stadiums, shopping centres and other venues from December 17.
“It won’t be happening in my venue I can assure you,” Mr Di Bella said in a two-minute video uploaded to LinkedIn. “The Coffee Commune will not discriminate. If you want to be vaccinated, you be vaccinated, if you don’t, you don’t. You take the health precautions that you need for yourself.”
But the Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland welcomed the state government announcement.
CCIQ policy and advocacy general manager Amanda Rohan said it provided the kind of certainty businesses had been desperate to hear for months.
“We understand pubs, clubs, cafes, restaurants, stadiums, cinemas, theatres and music festival businesses will not have density limit restrictions but also the contact tracing app will be integrated with vaccination status so those businesses can easily check if someone has checked in and if they are fully vaccinated,” she said.
Mr Di Bella, a Brisbane rich-lister who was recently named Business Person of the Year at the Lord Mayor’s Business Awards, said mandating vaccinations violated human rights.
“Politicians work for the people and if you support them mandating something like this - that you have your human rights taken away on where you can eat, where you can drink, where you can associate (and) where you can go, based on whether you are vaccinated or not - then you have rocks in your head and this country has gone mad,” he said.
The Coffee Commune, launched earlier this year, has a cafe open to the public. On its website the business describes itself as a dedicated facility for cafe and hospitality professionals, coffee enthusiasts, businesses, and suppliers to learn from each other and accelerate their business
Mr Di Bella sold his Di Bella Coffee business to Retail Food Group for $47m in 2014.
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