Souvlaki Grill and Chill owners insist they were ‘following the law’ after arrest and $25k fine over alleged Covid breached
The owners of a Nightcliff takeaway shop have hit back, insisting they were ‘following the law’, after one was arrested and fined over alleged Covid breaches.
Centralian Advocate
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THE OWNERS of the Souvlaki Grill and Chill in Nightcliff have hit back, insisting they were “following the law”, after one was arrested and fined $25,000 over alleged Covid breaches.
In a 40-minute video on Facebook, the pair make a series of dubious claims over the legitimacy of health directions that required customers to wear a mask and check in to businesses in the days following Darwin’s snap lockdown, when some restrictions remained in place.
Police say the takeaway joint was directed to close after police visited a number of times in the days prior to the arrest and gave the business “ample opportunity to comply with directions”.
The Tolioses first incurred the wrath of the public after they notified customers on Facebook and in-store that they would not ask anyone to wear a mask when they visited the store.
However, Mr Tolios has now claimed they would have in fact been breaking the law had they followed the chief health officer’s directions to enforce mask-wearing on their premises.
“Those instructions make us business owners break the Biosecurity Act, the Work Health and Safety Act, the privacy and discrimination acts,” he said.
“Getting the police people in there and stopping (customers) from entering our business simply because they don’t want to wear a mask or they don’t want to scan the QR code is breaching all those three acts which are in place.
“It’s fundamental, it’s common law.”
Mr Tolios said he feared legal action being taken against him for “discrimination” by enforcing the CHO’s directions.
“As business owners, we need to be very careful with what we’re doing,” he said.
“We don’t want to get sued, and that’s what it’s about.
“We can end up in court for discrimination and getting sued, and what’s our defence gonna be?”
He further claimed police officers were forcing them to break the law.
“They’re coming to our shop and telling us to forcefully break the law,” he said.
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“They’re not willing to sign any liability form – they’re not interested.
“They just want to stick our neck out and put it on the chopping board and ‘do as a say’.”
However, Maurice Blackburn regional office leader Amy Williams said she’s at a loss over Mr Tolios’s comments.
“The government has the power and the responsibility to enact laws that might place some restrictions on people when there is a risk or a threat to our community,” she said.
“Whether or not laws are in place that do you restrict us are valid depends on the nature of the risk and the size of the threat faced, but when the threat is something as significant as a pandemic – where our health, our economy and our way of life is at risk – a law that contains small restrictions such as wearing a mask or checking in is absolutely a valid law, and business owners do have a responsibility to implement and uphold those laws.”
Ms Williams said following the directions of the chief health officer would never risk legal action being taken against you.
“Requiring that staff or patrons follow those directions will not end up with you being sued,” she said.
“However, the much greater risk lies in the fact that businesses do have an obligation to implement and uphold the directions of the chief health officer and failing to do so places owned businesses at far greater risk of some kind of adverse action.”
Criminal Association of the NT president Marty Aust said personal views on the legitimacy of the CHO’s directions “hold no weight”.
“The NT Chief Health Officer has emergency powers to make directions under the Public and Environmental Health Act 2011 (NT),” he said.
“The CHO directions apply to all Territorians and criminal penalties apply to breaches.”
NT Police said they would not comment on the matter as it is before the courts.
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