Luke Mangan: Berejiklian needs to relieve NSW from strict COVID rules

People in supermarkets, planes and in many other places are not being COVID safe, so why is the restaurant industry singled out, asks Luke Mangan.

It’s time!

Since all this began the hospitality industry has been one of the hardest hit and in some instances will be the last to recover.

With all the restrictions being loosened for race meetings, the football and other major events, it’s time to give a boost to the heartbeat of our city — the restaurants, cafes, wine bars and pubs.

I was lucky to take a flight to Byron Bay recently, but on the packed plane just over 30 passengers were wearing masks and there was certainly no social ­distancing.

Chef Luke Mangan says the hospitality industry must survive. Picture: Dylan Robinson

So my question is — why must our industry be restricted still by the 4sq m rule?

If it increased to 2sq m, it would give our struggling industry more of a chance to survive on the way out of this pandemic?

Isn’t the government saying its focus is on ‘jobs, jobs, jobs’?

Premier, let’s not ruin what you’ve done for this state so far by holding us back when other states are opening up.

It’s ludicrous that Victoria is now moving ahead of us when we’ve done such a great job to get where we are.

Doubling capacity of venues under the 2sq m rule could create a revenue boost for small venues of up to $10,000 a week.

Melbourne Cup celebrations earlier this month were a perfect example of where restaurants, cafes and pubs could have doubled their revenue if this rule had changed.

I applaud the government’s fantastic work to get to where we are — increasing the size of bookings from 10 to 30 has helped so many.

But now it’s time to go even ­further.

We’ve been told that it’s safer to hold Christmas lunch in a COVID-safe venue than at home this year, so I urge the government to make this change now so our industry can benefit from increased bookings over the next two months.

Give our industry the chance to survive.

We don’t want to pack people in like on aeroplanes, but we want to increase capacity in a safe way that will give hospitality a chance to create more jobs … which is exactly what the government wants.

Gladys, let’s talk.