Justin Hemmes backs vaccine passport to help hospitality workers

Pub baron Justin Hemmes is joining a growing chorus of industry leaders pushing for a vaccine passport to sustain businesses during NSW’s crippling second wave of Covid.

Pub baron Justin Hemmes is joining a growing chorus of industry leaders pushing for a vaccine passport to sustain businesses during NSW’s crippling second wave of Covid.

Mr Hemmes said an “interim” vaccine passport should be implemented allowing vaccinated patrons to enter hospitality venues and be served by vaccinated workers.

Justin Hemmes is pushing for an effective vaccination passport to help hospitality businesses open up again. Picture: Darren Leigh Roberts

“Instead of sitting at home in lockdown and not employing ­people, there is an opportunity to open up the hospitality industry,” the Merivale boss said.

Vaccination certificates are currently available through the Express Plus Medicare app. But NSW Digital Minister Victor Dominello said people should have a choice and called on the federal government to integrate its immunisation records into the ServiceNSW app, already being used for QR code check-ins.

“The last thing we want is people queuing having to open different apps to get into a venue,” Mr Dominello said, adding six million people used the ServiceNSW app.

A spokeswoman for federal Government Services Minister Linda Reynolds said sharing the data would compromise privacy.

“The government is working with states and business to work out how vaccination certificates can be most effectively delivered,” she said.