Toowoomba Royal Show: RASQ urges State Government to ease vaccination mandates ahead of 2022 event

Residents will need to be double-vaccinated to enter the Toowoomba Showgrounds on Friday for the Royal Show, and organisers say it will cause financial and emotional pain.

Organisers for the famous Toowoomba Royal Show have urged the Queensland Government to relax its Covid vaccination mandate for the event this weekend, saying it would cause financial harm and put volunteers at risk.

All patrons entering the Toowoomba Showgrounds over the show long weekend will need to be double-vaccinated, with the Royal Agricultural Society of Queensland hiring security guards to man the entry gates from Friday.

RASQ CEO Damon Phillips said while he was remaining positive about the show’s prospects, he predicted the society would cop a financial blow on its biggest weekend of the year.

He also feared for volunteers copping abuse from residents who aren’t allowed in the showgrounds.

“The cost is a number of thousands of dollars to put guards at the gates,” Mr Phillips said.

“It’s impossible to check everybody’s vaccination status, we had a person going through the gates every two seconds last year.

“We’re losing siteholders now, revenue-wise it’s dropping well off because people have booked their sites in hope that a change to the rules would occur and it hasn’t.

“It would’ve been a lot easier to just say it is too hard (and cancel), but we have an obligation to the competitors, the showmen, the traders.

“There is (also) a fear out there among our volunteers that they are going to be subjected to harassment and abuse.”

Under public health rules, the show is considered in the same category as other ticketed outdoor entertainment events like festivals.

The showgrounds themselves are considered a “multipurpose venue” meaning the vaccination rules depend on the type of event.

Mr Phillips said this created double-standards, where the mandate only applied to the show but few other events held at the site.

“I’m allowed to hold an equestrian event and no one has to be double-vaccinated, but I can hold an equestrian event during the show and it’s a different set of rules,” he said.

“We’ve got one venue, with different events and different rules — I could fill a pavilion with stalls and call it a market and everyone can go to it.”

Mr Phillips said there was still time for Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to relax the rules before Friday.

“It is dividing the community and there is no benefit to it because the same people can walk on these grounds on a different weekend,” he said.

“It can be fixed so quickly, so let our community celebrate together.”

Toowoomba South MP David Janetzki also called for the mandates to be relaxed in parliament last week.

“It is inconsistent that the Queensland Health directive places entrance restrictions on Toowoomba’s three-day show that do not apply for the same site for the remaining 362 days of the year,” he said.

“I urge the health minister and Queensland Health to do everything necessary to complete their review of the directive and finalise the amendments immediately so that the beating heart of so many rural and regional communities goes on.”

A Queensland Health spokesman said the vaccine mandates did not favour one industry over another.

“Easing restrictions has always been a phased approach and managed sensibly to ensure the safety and wellbeing of all Queenslanders,” he said.

“Vaccine mandates at showgrounds do not favour one industry or group over another — they are based on the type of event.”

Originally published as Toowoomba Royal Show: RASQ urges State Government to ease vaccination mandates ahead of 2022 event