Canberra’s small venues will be allowed to seat up to 25 people, no matter their size, from Friday afternoon as coronavirus restrictions in the ACT are further eased.
The city will move to stage three restrictions from midday Friday, with health officials drawing more confidence thanks to the new border closure with Victoria.
Gyms will be allowed to operate 24-hours unstaffed, larger crowds will be allowed at Canberra Stadium, and poker machines will be switched back on.
But the major change for Canberra’s smaller venues comes from an easing of physical distancing measures.
Under the current restrictions, all cafes, bars, pubs, clubs and restaurants must adhere to a rule of one person per four square metres.
But from Friday afternoon, all venues will be allowed at least 25 patrons, no matter their size.
In the easing, announced this morning by the ACT Government, larger venues will still be able to take more than 25 patrons, while keeping the four-square-metre rule in place.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr said restaurants, cafes and bars will still have to take other safety measures, like recording the details of anyone who dines in.
“Its impact really is in venues with less than 100 square metres, and the difference is a handful of people,” he said.
“But that handful of people will make many of these businesses more economically viable.”
Some say changes are ‘inconsistent’
Some within the industry may have hoped for a broader move to a “two-square-metre” rule, flagged by the Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, following the most recent meeting of National Cabinet.
Such a move would have allowed for doubling of patrons within applicable venues.
But Mr Barr said that was at least a month away.
Anthony Brierley from the Australian Hotels Association’s ACT Branch said the “minor change” to allowing 25 patrons “won’t make any difference to the precarious financial position of hundreds of small businesswomen and men in Canberra’s hospitality industry”.
“It offers no hope to stood-down hospitality employees desperate to get their jobs back,” he said
“Forty people are allowed to sweat and breathe all over each other in a game of community rugby, but our industry can’t have 40 people in a small restaurant.
“The 25 flat patron-limit discriminates on the basis of venue size, despite costs per square metre being fixed. It is a market distortion that unjustifiably favours micro-venues without any explanation why.
“Having already been through so much, the Victorian situation has spooked our industry. Our industry would accept any underpinning health rationale for today’s change — but the glaring inconsistencies cause us to doubt it even exists.”
Bigger crowds, larger gatherings, more time at the gym and food courts are back
Food courts will be allowed to re-open from Friday afternoon, having been closed since the start of the lockdown to all but take-away service.
Gyms can also go back to 24-hour, unstaffed operations — but the number of members in the gym will be capped at 25 while no staff are on site.
The measure is targeted at gyms with “swipe-key” access systems, in the hope those can be used to limit the number of people accessing the facility.
Crowd sizes at football matches will be increased, after last weekend’s pilot at the Canberra Raiders and Brumbies matches.
Canberra Stadium will be allowed to take 25 per cent of its seated capacity, which equates to roughly 6,000 fans.
Ordinary outdoor gathering limits will also go up, from the current 100 to 250.
Pubs and clubs will be allowed to switch their poker machines back on, having been forced to leave them off since the venues first closed to dine-in patrons.
The ACT Government had been criticised by ClubsACT and the Canberra Liberals for not allowing the machines to return earlier, in line with moves in New South Wales.
Mr Barr said the Government was sticking to the plan it outlined from the start.
“We are honouring exactly what we said we would do in this regard, that should the health circumstances allow it, then we would [allow gaming] in a safe and measured way,” he said.
“And there are protections and protocols in place to ensure that gaming can be undertaken in a safe way.”
Canberra Casino will also be allowed to re-open, as will strip clubs and brothels with particular safety measures in place.
What comes next?
The new outbreak of COVID-19 in Victoria has affected the thinking of health and government officials on the easing of restrictions.
Mr Barr said that adjustments were made to this easing in light of the Victorian situation, and will affect the thinking going forward.
“It is a sobering reality check for everyone that the virus is still there, and it is still going to be part of our lives for months and months, and possibly years and years, into the future,” he said.
“So we have to manage our economic recovery in a way that minimizes risk, and we do our best to ease restrictions in a way that does minimise risk but does allow extra economic activity.”
The next review of restrictions is now due in four weeks time, in early August.
Nightclubs remain closed under stage three restrictions, but Mr Barr said would be allowed to re-purpose themselves as sit-down bars, serving drinks to customers.
“It won’t be reopening of nightclubs as people would have known them prior to COVID, that’s still a way off,” he said.
“But if they do want to transition into providing a service the same as a bar, then they are able to apply and do so.”
Those venues, along with larger conferences and festivals, are on the agenda to be considered next.
Source: ABC News