Gold Coast gym, cafe, bar and restaurant owners fume at Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk

Gold Coast hospitality and gym owners say the Palaszczuk Government has not thought through a lack of notice for reopening from noon today.

GOLD Coast hospitality and gym owners say the Palaszczuk Government has not thought through a lack of notice for reopening from noon today.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk moved forward Stage 2 of the roadmap to ease state restrictions to today, two weeks earlier than the original date of June 12.

Gyms will be able to open with 20 people allowed in the space but CrossFit Gold Coast owner Jeremy Austin said his would not be one of them.

Bar-restaurants, cafes and pubs can also host 20 patrons - up from 10 - but venue operators are fuming at just on 24 hours notice.

Gold Coast CrossFit instructor Jeremy Austin. Pic Tim Marsden

What you can do from tomorrow

“The Palaszczuk Government hasn’t thought this through,” Mr Austin said. “They say we need a covid safe plan to open but we need the state government to tick them off. They will be flooded with them in the morning so I don’t know how they’ll get them all through.

“Unless they turn a blind eye to gyms opening without them and if they do that, what’s the point of the plans in the first place.

“I can guarantee lots of gyms will open tomorrow without one. We won’t be one of them.

“We don’t want to take the p--- out of something so serious for a couple of days of extra business and see a second wave hit us,” Mr Austin said.

“We’ll try to open then but we don’t want to rush things,” he said. “We’ll see if we can fast track everything and try to open sooner.

“It’s great news for us, the sooner we can have people back the better.”

Small bar king and restaurant owner Scott Imlach said: “I think she could have given us more notice, if she knew on Tuesday then tell us then,”

“It’s not just letting in 20 people, it’s putting on more staff, organising more menus, changing the booking system, there’s a big line of things that have to be changed.

“We’ve had to call a meeting with all our staff tomorrow to reprogram where we’re going.”

Domani’s restaurant owner Neil Fisher, of Main Beach, agreed with the lack of notice: “I think (20 people) is better than it was yesterday. It will help but it’s better to know more in advance, I mean telling you it’s going to happen tomorrow? You’ve got rostering to do, that’s the criticism I have of it. But it’s good news.”

Meanwhile, Mr Austin’s gym in Bundall will have new rules members will have to get used to, including social distancing, where to enter and exit, and cleaning requirements.

Crossfit Gold Coast owner Jeremy Austin, ready to reopen his Bundall gym. Picture Mike Batterham

Mr Austin said everything had been done to ensure a safe environment for his members, including a pull-up rig being re-powder coated and the gym’s walls being washed down.

“We’ve had to pull in line with the government regulations, so we’ve shortened classes to 45 minutes,” he said.

“Only 19 people and an instructor will be in the classes. We’ve designed a new mobile phone app as well, so people have to book into every class to allow us to track who has been to the gym.”

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The ex-rugby union player said it was “unknown” if gyms would be able to survive with only 20 people.

“People have been in isolation for three months so we don’t know if the membership base will be back,” he said.

“20 people is going to be fine for us, we’ll just add additional classes if we need to.

“I know some bigger gyms like World Gym and Fitness First are going to struggle with their huge membership base and the space they’ve got.”