Bundaberg businesses meet to discuss Covid mandates

Bundaberg businesses have met to share concerns and frustrations at what they say are confusing and difficult laws in the wake of the Covid pandemic. The meetings come as Parliament prepares to meet and discuss the possibility of relaxing mandates.

Bundaberg businessman Michael McPhee, who owns Alowishus and Bert’s, says business dropped 30-40 per cent as soon as the State Government’s jab mandates came into effect in December 17, 2021.

The concerned local was one of many who gathered in Bundaberg and Childers on Thursday to discuss the state of business in the Wide Bay amid a Covid pandemic and what many see as inconsistent and confusing laws.

“It's been very difficult,” he said at the business confidence meeting at the HSG at the Gardens.

Mr McPhee said there had been a great deal of confusion around regulations that had hit businesses from both sides.

He said that while on one hand, customers were making complaints resulting in visits from police because of staff who’d taken their masks off to breathe in a hot kitchen, there were others who were “deriding” the businesses on social media for enforcing what they believed were discriminatory laws.

“As a small business, we need every customer,” Mr McPhee said.

“Since December 17 ,when the mandates came into effect, our business has been down 30-40 per cent.”

Wide Bay business people and community representatives meet at HSG at the Gardens.

The Bundaberg businessman echoed a concern many have, which is the sick leave that staff have had to use up on Covid leave, even if it was isolating when they felt well.

Mr McPhee was not alone, as other business owners explained their exhaustion around mandates including what they said was inconsistent advice from the Premier, Covid advice hotlines and government websites.

Many spoke of concerns for the future of the hospitality industry, with Club Hotel owner Rodney Wheat saying it was almost impossible to hire chefs as potential workers lost interest because of the perceived instability of the industry.

But it was not just hospitality in the firing line, according to attendees.

One representative of a Bundaberg electrical company said in some instances, mandates had even determined how two truck drivers were able to interact with each other.

Bundaberg’s politicians were invited to the event and Member for Bundaberg Tom Smith turned up to speak.

Mr Smith agreed he would take locals’ concerns from the meeting to Parliament next week where the State Government would decide if Queensland’s vaccination rate is now high enough to remove mandates requiring people to be vaccinated to enter certain places.

He said he was willing to listen to anyone who needed help and provided his personal phone number for all attendees.

Burnett MP Stephen Bennett made a phone call to organisers to discuss the issues facing businesses and Bundaberg Mayor Jack Dempsey wrote a letter that was read out and greeted with applause.

“I ask that restrictions for unvaccinated people please be lifted,” he said in the letter read out by organiser and community advocate Judy Plath.

“It’s stigmatising for people to be identified publicly and singled out because of their personal choices. It also creates red tape for business owners and venue managers to comply and enforce a mandate.”

Member for Hinkler Keith Pitt did not attend.

Katherine Reid from Bundaberg Tourism spoke of the issues affecting the region and the need to encourage young people to have a passion for roles in the hospitality industry.

Bundaberg Chamber of Commerce president Yale Morgan gave an address while Bundaberg counsellor David Facer spoke about mental health.

Many at the meeting said they felt like Queensland was being marketed nationally and globally as being “open for business” but the region’s businesses did not feel open at all while battling with confusion around mandates.

“At the end of the day, I’m still down 30 to 40 per cent and my team don’t have any sick pay,” Mr McPhee said.

Dion Taylor, owner of the HSG at the Gardens venue, said businesses needed certainty.

“None of us designed our businesses to close them down or shrink them,” he said.