Coronavirus: Bars, cafes and restaurants want vaccines to be mandatory

A majority of businesses want the ability to compel staff to be vaccinated, a poll conducted by Restaurant and Catering Australia shows

A deserted cafe at Circular Quay on Sydney Harbour. Picture: Gaye Gerard

The hospitality industry is calling for mandatory Covid-19 vaccinations as a pathway out of lockdown, as cases climbed to record levels in NSW on Tuesday and as officials continued to weigh vaccination targets as a method of gradually easing restrictions.

A poll conducted by Restaurant and Catering Australia and provided to The Australian shows a majority of businesses want the ability to compel staff to be vaccinated before coming to work, with 63 per cent of restaurant, bar and hotel owners backing the move.

Some 62 per cent of these venues said the federal government should mandate Covid-19 vaccinations for the general public, when asked how to summarise their position.

The polling was released to The Australian as the state recorded 356 new cases of the virus, including three deaths, and as conservative NSW Liberal MPs debated the contentious issue of mandatory jabs in a partyroom meeting.

Tuesday’s case numbers marked a new record since the NSW outbreak began on June 16, with 97 people identified as being infectious in the community and another 157 cases still under investigation for their isolation status.

Conservative Liberals have been seeking to introduce legislation banning the NSW government and businesses from com­pelling people to have the vaccine, arguing that doing so would be an assault on their individual rights and liberties.

Kerry Chant and Brad Hazzard during a heated parliamentary inquiry into the NSW government's management of the pandemic in Sydney on Tuesday. Picture: NSW Parliament

The concern was prompted by a government edict last week that construction workers from eight Sydney Covid-19 hotspots would be required to receive at least one shot before they could return to worksites across the city.

Moderate Liberal MPs voted down the proposal, preventing it from progressing to parliament. Attorney-General Mark Speakman was said to have criticised the legislation as an “anti-vaxxer bill”, while others, including Transport Minister Andrew Constance, also spoke against it.

Restaurant and Catering Australia chief executive Wes Lambert said his polling indicated a majority of hospitality businesses wanted the commonwealth to mandate Covid-19 vaccinations.

He said a slightly larger majority thought businesses should be able to issue a similar mandate to their staff, saying this already ­occurred with mandates on uniforms, masks, hair nets and other workplace items.

“Clearly, businesses want the certainty that comes with knowing what they can or can’t do,” Mr Lambert said.

Just over half of all businesses surveyed, 53.5 per cent, also want businesses to be able to turn away customers unless they can show they have been vaccinated.

“If the government can provide doctors with indemnity, why can’t they do the same for businesses? It seems the sensible solution is for the government to step in and provide some certainty to business owners who are being told that vaccination is their passport to freedom, but can’t set any clear rules about vaccine mandates in their own business,” Mr Lambert said

In a positive step, NSW recorded 98,244 vaccinations to midnight on Monday, its highest number of daily jabs since record-keeping began earlier this year.

The state’s chief health officer, Kerry Chant, told a parliamentary inquiry on Tuesday that she remained optimistic the state would exceed its target of 50 per cent vaccinations – at the first-dose level – by the end of August.

But she said she preferred the state to achieve 70 per cent vaccination coverage before restrictions could be eased substantially for residents, citing the figure quoted in modelling provided to national cabinet last week.

“Certainly, I’m very committed to the issues around getting our vaccine coverage up, but very much recognise that we need that 70 per cent figure before we have too much of a discussion about what easing restrictions look like,” Dr Chant said.

She later qualified this stance by saying “unaffected areas” could potentially be provided with an earlier exit from lockdown conditions, naming the region of Shellharbour, in the state‘s south, as a potential site.

The hearing turned heated at times as Health Minister Brad Hazzard vehemently defended the government from allegations that the lockdown could have been implemented sooner.

Dr Chant said when the virus first appeared in Sydney’s eastern suburbs on June 16, compliance had been high among the population and the situation appeared manageable, which is why a lockdown was not called immediately.

This changed on June 23 when it emerged that a Covid-positive hairdresser from Double Bay attended a birthday party in the suburb of West Hoxton, sparking a new spreading event.