Coronavirus: mixed messages leave businesses confused about what they can and can’t do

Firms struggle to absorb what relaxed restrictions mean for them, which may damage confidence.

NSW Business chief executive Stephen Cartwright says Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s announcement on Sunday has left NSW businesses confused.

Mixed messages about the timeline for getting Australians back to work have left businesses confused and may damage confidence, as governments try to get workers back to their offices and the economy moving again.

NSW Business chief executive Stephen Cartwright said Scott Morrison’s “upbeat” announcement on Friday pointing to “a way out” of the country’s lockdown had been very welcome. But the announcement on Sunday by NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian that the stage one easing of the COVID-19 restrictions would not come into effect until Friday had left NSW businesses struggling to absorb what the relaxed restrictions meant for them.

“It’s confusing for business ­because each state is setting its own pace and NSW has had the most COVID cases, so of course it is ­erring on the side of caution and moving more slowly than most of the nation,” Mr Cartwright told The Australian.

“What businesses definitely don’t want is multiple false starts, and they genuinely don’t want to do the wrong thing. They don’t want to flout the rules.”

Under the stage one relaxations announced by Ms Berejiklian on Sunday, allowable outdoor gatherings will rise from two to 10 people. Cafes and restaurants will be allowed to seat a maximum of 10 people at a time. A maximum of 10 people will also be able to attend churches and weddings, while ­funeral attendances have been lifted to 20 indoors and 30 for an outdoor service.

Outdoor pools will also be reopened and people will be allowed to use outdoor exercise and play equipment, with the warning that it should be wiped before use.

Mr Cartwright said given NSW’s eight million people made up one-third of the country’s population, there needed to be a more targeted approach to helping the state’s businesses reopen.

He said unlike other states, Ms Berejiklian had ruled out any ­regional tourism, but that could also be an opportunity for businesses to move a lot faster to reopen in the largely COVID-free regional areas of the state.

He said a poll of NSW businesses last week found three-quarters now believed they would survive the pandemic, compared with six weeks ago when business confidence “was through the floor”.

Lets Go Surfing, the largest surf school in Australia, said despite the recent reopening of the main beaches in Sydney — from Bondi to Manly — it was still far too early to consider reopening the business.

Lets Go managing director Craig Wachcolz said there had been a “lot of headlines but not much clarity” as businesses were forced to deal with the ever-changing COVID-19 protocols.

He said the virus meant having to dramatically change the way surfing sessions would be conducted in the future — forcing the company to rethink fundamentals, such as whether instructors could even push beginner surfers up onto their first wave

Lenny Chad, the owner of Signature Fitness, a boutique personal training gym in Bondi Junction in Sydney’s eastern suburbs, said lifting the number of people who could do training sessions outdoors to 10 wouldn’t help his business.

He said like many small gym operators, his business had been “crunched” by the blanket ban on all gyms and he had already switched to teaching exercise ­sessions online.

“Training in parks means you need a permit, you need a trailer, you need equipment and you have to spend time switching to a new group-training model. It’s just not worth the hassle,” Mr Chad said.

“I’ll have to wait until stage two, when you can train 20 people indoors, and it sounds like I’ll have to wait until about mid-June.”