Victorian hospo workers abused over ‘mind-boggling’ vaccine rule

Victorian hospitality workers are calling for an end to “business damaging restrictions” amid worsening abuse over vaccine mandates.

Prominent Melbourne restaurateur Chris Lucas has backed calls for an immediate end to vaccine mandates.

It comes after the Herald Sun revealed the worsening abuse that hospitality workers are being subjected to during every shift.

Leading hospitality figures have demanded the vaccinated economy is scrapped for good.

Mr Lucas, who owns some of the CBD’s most popular venues including Chin Chin and Kisume, said while many industries were able to move on, the hospitality sector was still being subjected to “business damaging restrictions”.

“(Premier Daniel) Andrews, his incompetent CHO and bumbling Health Minister are out of step with the rest of the nation and the world,” Mr Lucas said.

“This bloke is extending state of emergency when there is no emergency and keeping mandates, QR codes and vaccinated economy restrictions which is killing small and big business.”

Mr Lucas argued there was “zero medical advice or common sense justification” to keep the rules in place.

“I feel despite numerous attempts to get this mob to see commonsense we are getting nowhere,” he added.

“Victoria is now out of step nationally and even globally as virtually all major cities in the world have repealed these mandates.”

Chris Lucas wants hospitality vaccine mandates scrapped. Picture: Richard Dobson

Victorian hospitality workers are being abused over a “mind-boggling” vaccine rule that epidemiologists say no longer serves any health purpose.

The state government is yet to provide an end date for jab mandates or the vaccinated economy, which blocks people from attending pubs, clubs and bars if they haven’t received two doses.

The government also hasn’t confirmed if they will wind back mandates for certain industries to allow unvaccinated people back to their professions.

But the Premier on Thursday suggested the rules could be scrapped within weeks as Covid cases fall.

Mr Andrews said anyone abusing staff was disgraceful.

“Those people are acting just appalling,” he said.

“But in terms of this challenge of being so vaccinated, that is a wonderful challenge for us to have to deal with.”

Mr Andrews then flagged these rules could soon be removed along with most others.

“We will have options once the peak of this sub-variant is through,” he said.

“There’s some early signs and promising signs that we’re getting very close to that, then we’ll have options.

“And then we’ll take those options to remove further rules to the point where we’ll have very very few rules at all.

“Things like the vaccinated economy, masks, all sorts of different things will be looked at closely by the public health team, by the health minister and we’ll make announcements in due course.

“People know that it’s probably not a great idea to take rules off while cases are going up, we should wait till we get to the peak, be on the other side of that and then we can make some further changes then.”

Mr Andrews said he couldn’t say exactly when this happen but Victoria wasn’t “far off”.

“We’re certainly talking about weeks rather than months,” he said.

“Hopefully it’s only a matter of a few weeks.”

Deakin University’s chair of epidemiology Professor Catherine Bennett says the vaccine mandate is no longer justified in most settings.

Deakin University’s chair of epidemiology Professor Catherine Bennett said the vaccination mandate once served a purpose but was no longer justified in most settings.

“There isn’t a health argument for the vaccine economy now,” she said.

“It could be anything but a health stance. I can’t say what it is, but at the end of the day, the epidemiologist argument fades pretty quickly if you reach high vaccination rates and background immunity.”

Almost 95 per cent of Victorians aged over 12 have received two doses of a Covid vaccine, while just under 67 per cent of adults over 18 are triple vaccinated.

Prof Bennett said of the “very small” per cent of eligible adults who aren’t vaccinated, half have likely had an infection.

“Very few people would have no immunity,” she added.

Associate Professor Nathan Grills, a public health physician at the University of Melbourne, said the edict should be credited for pushing up jab rates and saving thousands of lives, but warned it came at a price.

“We have ostracised, and even vilified, the five per cent of the eligible population who remain unvaccinated,” he said.

“I may believe their reasoning is ill-informed by reasoning that doesn’t stand up to academic critical appraisal. But does that justify continuing to alienate and exclude them from work opportunities and social activities? To continue such draconian partitions would need strong public health evidence in order to be proportionate.”

Hospitality workers, such as Greg Sanderson from Nick and Nora’s bar, are stressed out trying to implement the rule. Picture: Josie Hayden

Queensland will on Thursday throw open its doors to places like clubs, cafes, theme parks, cinemas, weddings and stadiums for everyone - regardless of their jab status.

New South Wales has also ditch needing to show evidence of vaccination in most premises, which industry groups want done in Victoria.

Restaurant & Catering Australia CEO Wes Lambert said he received dozens of “distressing calls” from “extremely stressed staff” every day.

“I can’t even count the amount of times I’ve heard ‘I’m thinking about shutting my business because of the abuse my staff and I get’,” Mr Lambert said.

“It’s just mind-boggling we still have these laws especially when the government has effectively given up on track-and-tracing. How long will venues have to cop abuse when their counterparts in NSW and now QLD have learned to live with the virus?”

Restaurant and Catering Australia chief executive Wes Lambert says he receives dozens of ‘distressing calls’ from ‘extremely stressed staff’ every day.

Greg Sanderson, managing director of The Speakeasy Group, which owns venues in Victoria and NSW, said international and interstate visitors over the Grand Prix weekend contributed to a spike in abuse.

Mr Sanderson said irate customers often smashed glassware, threatened physical violence, punched walls, swore at staff and left one-star reviews.

“It’s just getting so bad. On a nightly basis, we have staff members in tears, they don’t want to come to work,” he said.

Australian Hotels Association chief executive Paddy O’Sullivan said: “Obligations placed on hospitality staff to wear masks and check vaccination status of their patrons is continuing to cause friction in balancing the need for staff to administer government orders and to also provide great service to patrons.”

Small Business Australia executive director Bill Lang said the mandates were causing “pain and division”.

“We urge the Premier to use an ‘abundance of common sense’ by following the health advice that has said for months that vaccine mandates serve no purpose in protecting the community,” he said.

“Instead they are causing great harm and pain to tens of thousands of Victorians who are prevented from earning a living, with the mandates leaving business owners across the state unable to fill shifts.

“As we as a community are now at 95 per cent double vaccinated it is well past time for the Premier and his government to end the vaccine mandates and the pain and division they are causing.”

Premier Daniel Andrews this week said Victoria’s Covid case numbers appeared to represent “some stability”.

“Once we get past the peak, once we start to see those numbers coming off, we will have options that are not available to us now. That’ll be options … like household contacts and iso rules for them, vaccinated economy, QR coding, all sorts of different things will – it’s our hope – fall away.”