Susie O’Brien: Victoria still weighed down by Andrews millstone
Victorians should be celebrating but silly restrictions still hold us back. It’s time for the Andrews government to trust the public to reopen properly, writes Susie O’Brien.
Susie O'Brien
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Victoria is not the milestone state — we’re the millstone state.
At a time when we should be celebrating the uniting of city and country, and the upcoming removal of the pointless 25km limit, punitive, silly restrictions continue to hold us back.
Instead of reaching the next milestone and celebrating because we’re moving forward, we’ve got a millstone around our neck — the Daniel Andrews government.
Given the continued “doughnut days” of zero cases and zero deaths, it’s likely the government will proceed with its planned rollout of further restrictions this weekend.
No doubt it will keep in place ridiculous, nonsensical patron counts in pubs, restaurants and gyms instead of limiting people on the basis of the size of venue.
It’s too late for the Melbourne Cup, where the jewel in our major events crown will proceed at Flemington without any members of the general public in attendance.
What an absolute waste. Instead of 100,000 people decked out in their finery enjoying the race, there’s no one there at all. More effort should have been made to allow at least a few thousand diehard race fans (rather than silvertail horse owners) to attend given the size of the track.
But there’s still time for the government to change the way it’s treating the businesses and services that employ millions of people.
At present, metro cafes and restaurants are capped at 10 people per indoor space to a maximum of 20 and 50 outside. This will rise to a maximum of 40 indoors and 70 outdoors from next week.
Such limitations are unsustainable and crippling for hundreds of venues — the bigger the place, the greater the gap between the number of people allowed and the potential capacity.
As David Canny from the Australian Hotels Association told me yesterday, larger venues such as the Garden State Hotel are licensed for 1000 people but under the current caps can only have 20 people inside.
Even a jump to 40 people from next week is absurd — that’s just four per cent of the possible number of patrons allowed.
But if the hotel was allowed one person per four square metres, it could admit 25 per cent of its capacity.
From next week such venues will be allowed to have 70 people outside, but that’s not much good for a landlocked city pub like the Garden State.
As Canny tells it, the per-room patron limit isn’t used anywhere in the world and came out of the blue.
How typical of this government’s botched decision making.
From next week gyms will be allowed to open, but at this stage they will be only allowed to fit 20 people per venue, with one person per eight square metres and a maximum of ten per space.
Why not allow venues to adhere to density limits to reflect the overall size of the space?
Barrie Elvish from Fitness Australia says some gyms are 3500sq m and yet they can admit just 20 people, or 40 from next week. It’s no wonder half are not even expected to open, and may not survive until next year.
Elvish says his industry has had no financial support and no meetings with the Premier or any top ministers.
It’s no way to treat an industry with 900,000 members, but it reflects the last-minute scrambling this government has done throughout this crisis.
You have a gym the size of a supermarket or Bunnings store but only 20 people are allowed inside regardless of size? It’s ridiculous.
When it comes to these venues, the bigger the size, the more people they can safely fit. It’s a no-brainer.
The same density limits should apply to other businesses and services like churches.
It’s no wonder religious groups are feeling ripped off. Most faith-based venues are enormous and yet they’re only allowed a maximum of 10 people at the moment inside and 20 next week. It’s absurd and discriminatory.
We need to focus on the long-term health of our community as we come out of lockdown. This means opening as many businesses, services and industries as possible, within safe limits.
We urgently need a commonsense rather than a punitive approach to restrictions.
These are not groups wanting to throw open their doors and have a free-for-all; they’ve proved they can operate safely.
We all want to reach COVID normal by Christmas. But we want to do it with our remaining businesses and services intact, rather than only keeping their doors open due to dwindling government handouts.
It is high time the government trusted the people and business owners of Victoria to open up properly. They’ve earnt it and so have we.
Susie O’Brien is a Herald Sun columnist