Coronavirus: Phantom lockdown that’s crippling NSW economy

NSW is not currently in lockdown, but you wouldn’t know it from the state’s cafes and restaurants – and it’s all thanks to a nervous Gladys.

OPINION

Last week a Bondi pizza shop opened up its doors for six hours between 4pm and 10pm and managed to sell just two medium supremes.

Last week cafes that are normally crowded – in a socially distanced pandemic manner – began to see a drop off in custom.

For the last 10 days, coinciding with Victoria’s stage four lockdown, NSW has been having its own phantom lockdown with people avoiding the type of outlets making the news as coronavirus hot spots.

And it has been spooked into this shadowy state – which is crippling business in a current but very real second coronavirus slump – by a clearly nervous and reactive Premier.

Meanwhile, the one exception is shopping centres which people have been flocking to, not observing social distancing and not being tracked coming or going.

If you go to your nail salon or barber tomorrow they are required to sign you in and have only one or two customers in the shop at a time.

And fear over virus numbers has had a strange and debilitating effect on already stricken small businesses in NSW, the ghostly second lockdown that has happened when there is no official one.

But if you’re a big landlord like, say Westfield, you don’t have to track who comes into your shopping centre, restrict the numbers per square metre or police the social distancing.

Not only is that a coronavirus catastrophe in the making, but frankly it’s the elephant in the state.

Sydney’s cafes and restaurants are experiencing a slump in a second ‘phantom’ lockdown due to mixed government messages, an industry boss says. Picture. Phil Hillyard

The one exception is shopping centres which people have been flocking to, not observing social distancing and not being tracked coming or going. Picture: NewsWire/Joel Carrett

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As City of Sydney councillor and cafe owner Angela Vithoulkas told news.com.au: “so is COVID-19 not infectious in shopping centres, but is infectious in small businesses, pubs and clubs?”

“The shopping centres are a disaster waiting to happen,” she said.

“They are absolutely not monitoring or tracking the large crowds of people going in there because it is big business.

“Landlords like Westfield are not contact tracing entry or exit points.

“It’s individual shops in each shopping centre who have to take responsibility and that’s impossible.

“If there was a cluster at Eastgardens (a huge Westfield shopping centre in Sydney’s eastern suburbs which was packed out last weekend) what is the consequence?

“I don’t want to rely on other people being honest … saying they were there.

“I want the facts. We tell pubs and clubs what the maximum number of people is.

“Shopping centre don’t have a maximum and that’s the missing link.

“We don’t have best practice for everyone and we have to if we want to get back to normal and for the economy to survive.”

Councillor and cafe owner Angela Vithoulkas says shopping centres are ‘a disaster waiting to happen’ and hospitality has slumped further because of virus fears. Picture: Joel Carrett

As NSW new coronavirus case numbers rose out of the teens to 22 on Tuesday, Premier Gladys Berejiklian may have breathed a sigh of relief that she capitulated over quarantining Melbourne flight passengers.

Of course the premier said it was because the “medical advice” had changed.

Others believe a campaign by Radio 2GB’s Ben Fordham with help from News Corp, publisher of The Daily Telegraph and news.com.au, edged a nervous health officer Kerry Chant across the line.

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Then the increasingly haggard-looking Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews locked down his state and the strange phantom self-imposed lockdown in NSW began.

This week it’s even worse, with numbers sliding off a cliff and some restaurants may as well just be closed.

“It’s like it was in lockdown back in March,” one cafe owner told news.com.au.

“People are staying at home because they’re frightened of the Melbourne virus infections.”

Ms Vithoulkas, who heads the Small Business Party, says the slump of the last 10 days has meant a further 10-20 per cent downturn for small businesses such as cafes, salons and gyms.

This is on top of the already 60-70 per cent slump from pre-COVID-19 numbers.

“So the little incremental increases since salons and gyms were allowed to reopen have been lost,” she said.

“People are scared. The bad publicity is around cafes, restaurants and these sorts of businesses.”

Shoppers at Bonnyrigg Plaza shopping Centre in western Sydney last weekend which was closed for a deep clean after a COVID-29 scare. Picture: Julian Andrews

Wes Lambert, the CEO of Restaurant and Catering Australia, said the recent downturn in patronage was a result of fear and confusion at the NSW government’s “mixed messaging”.

A clearly nervous and over reactive administration was, in essence spooking the state into the phantom lockdown

He said the government had to pick between an eradication or suppression strategy to manage the coronavirus outbreak.

“Please pick one,” he said.

“We absolutely support the government’s suppression strategy of track and trace, social distancing.

“(But) consumer and business confidence caused by reaction to the Melbourne outbreak is contributing to the drop in sales.

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“With a suppression strategy, the expectation is there will be clusters of cases and then the rules have been put in place by NSW Health to address these clusters with a cornerstone of tracking and tracing.

“It is very important both consumers and businesses have confidence that under the government’s suppression strategy that it is not overly reactive every time cases arise.”

New coronavirus infections in NSW might have stayed under 10 a day, had the NSW Government not made mistakes in closing the border weeks too late and importing Victoria’s woes.

Amid a growing cluster at a girls’ school in Cherrybrook, Premier Berejiklian today warned people to “keep maintaining our social distance”.

The Premier looks anything but confident in managing her state’s suppression strategy, instead fearfully warning today NSW sits “on a knife’s edge”.

Is NSW’s situation so precarious it is heading down the path of Daniel Andrews’ nightmare, or is it his likely doomed political future which is unnerving?

Meanwhile manage your strategy Premier, and go see the CEO of Scentre Group, which owns Westfield.

Late last month an employee at a nail salon in Westfield Hurstville worked two days while infectious with COVID-19.

So far, NSW Health has not identified a cluster from the salon or the Westfield.

Last weekend, Bonnyrigg Plaza shopping centre (not a Westfield) in western Sydney was deep cleaned after a coronavirus scare.

If there’s a large outbreak connected to a NSW shopping centre, it’s not going to instil confidence when there is no way in the world to contact trace it.

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