Hospitality and tourism industry leaders question SA’s ‘harsh’ rules as NSW moves to end restrictions

As NSW prepares to drop mask and density rules – even cutting back on QR check-ins – traders are frustrated SA is still dealing with confusing restrictions, with no end in sight.

New South Wales has moved to end all density restrictions, while South Australian businesses are still hamstrung by caps and highly confusing rules, industry leaders say.

Mandatory mask rules will be scrapped in NSW from December 15, while QR check-ins will be scaled back to high-risk settings, such as hospitals.

Density restrictions at NSW venues will also be removed, prompting SA’s hospitality and tourism leaders to further question our state’s rules.

NSW has a double vaccination rate of 92 per cent, compared with 79 per cent in SA.

Australian Hotels Association state president Ian Horne said an “unnecessarily strict regime of restrictions” and “community caution” after SA borders reopened had caused corporations to cancel Christmas functions, creating more stress for those working in the hospitality sector.

“Because there’s a level of caution in the community now, corporations are looking at it and thinking it’s not worth it,” Mr Horne said.

He said the state’s current restrictions, in place and largely unmodified since the Modbury Cluster breakout in July, should have been lifted by now.

“Clearly our track record in SA has been exceptional in avoiding and containing outbreaks, so what’s more brutal is that those restrictions just aren’t on the population here (in Adelaide), they’re on every country venue … it just seems very harsh.”

Travel industry leader Phil Hoffmann said holiday-makers were wary of government-imposed goalposts changing yet again, despite the border reopening, and were holding off bookings for interstate and overseas travel.

“We can see the potential of opening fully but it’s not here yet. They’re saying 90 per cent (vaccination rate) but they could change their mind,” Mr Hoffmann said.

“We’ve got people excited to book but there’s a certain amount of hesitancy about booking anything at the moment because of the restrictions and the quarantine period.”

SA has a complex matrix of nearly 30 scenarios to work out if people have to isolate when they come into contact with someone who has Covid.

The road map sets out different rules for vaccinated and unvaccinated people in a complicated set of diagrams, which were labelled by business leaders as a “red-tape nightmare”.

It comes as three new Covid cases were revealed in SA on Thursday.

Phil Hoffmann. Picture: Ben McMahon

The cases were on three Qantas planes that arrived on Wednesday; flights QF733, QF0739 and QF679.

They were a man in his 50s and a woman in her 20s, who both acquired their infection interstate, and man in his 60s who was infected overseas.

All three are in isolation and have been transferred to a quarantine facility. Their household close contacts are also in quarantine.

Testing rates in SA rocketed to 8029 on Wednesday, by far the highest level since August.

Vaccination rates remain much lower in Indigenous communities, where rates in SA stand at 64.5 per cent for first shot and 50.2 per cent for fully vaccinated.

Originally published as Hospitality and tourism industry leaders question SA’s ‘harsh’ rules as NSW moves to end restrictions