Restaurant owner calls on all levels of government to take action to save Brisbane CBD

All levels of government must step up and lead by example if we’re going to save the Brisbane CBD, which has been left a ghost town by Covid lockdowns, writes Jumbo Thai owner Andrew Park. VOTE IN OUR POLL

Remember when, not too long ago, a ‘night out in town’ meant joining throngs of our fellow citizens meandering through Queen Street Mall, perhaps a little bar hopping before picking which restaurant to try out, and maybe doing some window shopping in a beautiful unique place like Brisbane Arcade?

Being in our Brisbane CBD has always been an exciting outing for all ages, providing plenty of optionality for leisure, great people watching, admiration of our magnificently preserved heritage buildings and really just an exhilarating experience being among so many people.

Whilst there are lots of big brand names in ‘town’ still, being kept open seemingly without worry through their corporate shareholders, there are many small business folk like my wife and I who, two years ago, saw our CBD as a great place to hang out our restaurant shingle and try to capture trade from some of the passing crowd. We invested much of our savings into fitting out our business and signed up, with much hope and optimism, to a long, expensive lease.

Andrew Park, the owner of Jumbo Thai, is calling on all levels of government to step up with targeted support and well thought out policies in order to save the Brisbane CBD. Picture: Steve Pohlner

Who was to know what was just around the corner..?

Over this last week since we all came up from our latest lockdown slumber, whilst our suburban hospitality and retail businesses bounced back (good for them – some of our suburbs seem to have thrived through the pandemic), our CBD has been a ghost-town – no office workers noshing down together over lunch, no corporate travellers bunking down in our hotels and no groups of friends catching up for an evening drink or a meal after work. Tumbleweeds.

CBD office workers -the lifeblood of the city - have seemingly been given the choice of sitting at their office desk all day for this fortnight period wearing a face mask, or logging on from home without such a hindrance. A no brainer for them, of course.

As someone who was privileged enough to spend some years working in our national Parliament, I can inform you this is what is politely referred to as an ‘unintended consequence’, which is really code for ‘sorry, we screwed up, regards, your government…’

Anyone in business will tell you one of the keys to success is certainty from governments.

Unfortunately through this last 18 months or so there has been nothing but uncertainty, and also much inconsistency from governments on how coal-face businesses like ours deal with the pandemic situation.

Policy on the run would be a kind description.

Workplaces have for many months now already been reconfigured, at great cost, to allow for social distancing.

Workers are not returning to the Brisbane CBD after the latest Covid lockdown and a mandate forcing masks to be worn in offices. Picture: Liam Kidston.

No doubt in my mind masks are a useful tool in stopping the spread - when we can’t socially distance - at least isn’t that what we’ve been told repeatedly?

The mandating of masks in offices this week has drained our CBD of people, put small businesses on the brink of going under (some already have) and put a heart-breaking spear through the hope of many traders that the CBD would anytime soon return to a vestige of normalcy. It has been a major setback.

Is this the result of outsourcing ALL decision-making to career health bureaucrats who may never take into account such trivial matters as business survival and job losses, and for whom only the complete eradication of the virus is a mark of success?

The short, sharp lockdown did its job and for the sake of our business and others in the city, hopefully there wont be any more as our vaccination take-up rates improve.

The tricky challenge governments now and over the coming months have, until those threshold vaccination numbers are reached, is getting the balance right - at the moment, I don’t believe they’ve got that balance right.

King George Square in the Brisbane CBD resemebled a ghost town on Thursday morning. Picture: Tara Croser.

Politicians and media are obsessed with the daily numbers – how many new cases, how many deaths, how many vaccinations. How about how many jobs are lost, how many businesses are going under, how many mental breakdowns are occurring and how many families are being torn apart, as a result of what’s going on?

And when, in four months or so time, Brisbanites want to come ‘into town’ for the work Christmas party, do some gift shopping and take the kids to a flick, let’s all hope and pray there aren’t too many ‘For Lease’ signs.

If there are, these wont just be Covid casualties but even worse, ‘unintended consequences’.

Collateral damage from too many lockdowns and too many restrictions.

The strength of our CBD, if it is to ever thrive again, will never just be a few large riverfront precincts with concentrated ownership, rather the sum of its parts, with many small traders proud of their unique and special offerings.

The time is now for all levels of government to step up with targeted support and well thought out policies in order to save our CBD. Leading by example and requiring all government and council officers back to the city without having to mask up at their desks, would be a good start.

• Andrew Park owns Jumbo Thai Restaurant in Brisbane’s CBD. He was previously an adviser to former Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.