Coronavirus Australia: PM announces tough new space restrictions for businesses

The Prime Minister has announced tough new space restrictions for indoor venues, with one unlikely sector expected to be hit harder than others.

Indoor venues with 100 people or fewer will have to make changes to how many people they can allow in amid Australia’s coronavirus pandemic.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced the new space restrictions this afternoon, saying there will be a maximum limit of “four square metres provided per person in an enclosed space”.

That means places like gyms, restaurants and cafes will have to cut the number of people allowed into their venues.

“The rise in the number of cases means we need to continue to take measures to flatten the curve,” Mr Morrison said.

The new restrictions will mean that a lot of venues will likely suffer, with one unlikely sector expected to be hit harder than others.

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Cafes will have to limit the number of people allowed in. Picture: Robert Pozo/AAP

Tim Harcourt, JW Nevile Fellow at UNSW Business School, told news.com.au that high end restaurants will likely be hit harder than others areas in the industry.

“A lot of cafes and restaurants have already moved to having delivery available. It will be the places that are purely in-house service that will be impacted the hardest,” he said.

“Ironically, I think the fine dining restaurants will really struggle now. They operate entirely on experience and having people come to their high-end venues.”

Mr Harcourt also noted that smaller cafes that don’t offer delivery and rely on people coming into the store will struggle with the new restrictions as well.

“The venues that fall in the middle that already have established takeaway and delivery options will be able to pull through lot more easily,” he said.

“I think we are already moving a little bit towards a more delivery focused business model and I think these new restrictions will accelerate that model rather rapidly.”

Mr Harcourt noted that a lot of people in the hospitality industry were casual or part time workers and they will be the ones who are impacted the most.

“There will likely be a loss of in-house service jobs for areas like waitressing and bar staff. Hopefully some people can be moved over to delivery roles,” he said.

“I think you will see a major shift in consumption from dining in to takeout. I know a lot of people will really be wanting to be support their local cafes and restaurants during this time but the most noble thing you can do is respect the social distancing rule and get takeaway from the same place you would usually go to eat.”

Mr Morrison said the new rules will mean everyone will have to work harder to keep a “healthy distance between us all”.

The PM said businesses would have to apply to the rule to meeting rooms and work spaces.

"So for example, if you’ve got a room, if you’ve got a premises, if you’ve got a meeting room or something like that, that’s 100 square metres, then you can have 25 people in that room,” he said.

"Now, in addition to that, you should continue to practise wherever possible the 1m or 1.5m of healthy distance between each of us, to ensure that we are limiting the contact and limiting the potential for the spread of the virus."

Mr Morrison said the rules would take some time for people to get used to.

“But I would ask people to move as quickly as they can,” he said.

"I know it means a lot of change for a lot of venues, whether they be cafes or restaurants or clubs or any of these other places of public gathering, including at this building here.

"We'll be working to ensure that people know how many people can be in the various meeting rooms at this place."