Toowoomba businesses celebrate the change to vaccine mandates

Toowoomba hospitality and entertainment venues are celebrating Queensland State Government’s decision to remove Covid-19 vaccine mandates. Here's what they had to say. 

Proof BBQ and Booze pitmaster Deniz Altintas shows off some the restaurant smoked meat. The Toowoomba venue’s owner Ryan Lane is looking forward to the lifting of vaccine mandates next week. Picture: Kevin Farmer

TOOWOOMBA’S hospitality and entertainment venues are celebrating the scrapping of vaccine mandates across the state.

The State Government’s decision to remove mandate restrictions from 1am on April 14 means customers will not have to be vaccinated to enter restaurants, cafes, pubs, casinos, theme parks, libraries, showgrounds, stadiums and cinemas.

“It’s the last piece of the puzzle, meaning we can go back to business as usual,” Fitzy’s Toowoomba general manager Brad Fitzgibbons said.

“The unvaccinated are the minority, but like everyone they have friends and those groups are choosing to socialise at home.

“When you look at it, everyone has paid a price during the pandemic but now we can go back to welcoming everyone.”

Mr Fitzgibbons is also looking forward to an easing in demands upon his staff from the mandates.

“We’re already a heavily regulated industry – particularly when you’re a late night venue,” he said.

“There was a point there where we had to check people’s licences, their vaccination status and make sure they checked-in as well.

“It will be good to have some of those barriers removed now.”

Like Mr Fitzgibbons, Proof Barbecue and Booze owner Ryan Lane is looking forward to less “policing” and more serving good food to customers.

“It’s a huge relief for us,” Mr Lane said.

“We’ve always been pro-choice, but at the same time the government forced these mandates on us so we had to comply.

“We’re a small business and we employ 25 staff so I had to think about their livelihoods and mine during all of this.

“The last two years have been hard so now we’re looking forward to being able to welcome everyone through our doors again.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced the decision to scrap the mandates earlier this week but urged Queenslanders to get vaccinated if they hadn’t already done so.

“It’s time to reunite Queensland,” she said.

“The trigger point is our levels of vaccinations. As of yesterday (Sunday), 90.5 per cent of Queenslanders 12 years and over have received at least two doses of the vaccine.

“The restrictions we had in place did their job: keeping our community safe and encouraging vaccinations.”

The vaccine mandates will remain in place at hospitals, schools, aged care centres, and prisons.