From the General Manager

Needs to be a Better Way

IAN HORNE – AHA|SA GENERAL MANAGER

The Transition Committee approved the removal of a number of restrictions for Monday 14 December that included:

• Restoration of stand-up drinking

• Increased capacity of private functions including weddings and funerals to 200

• Home gatherings up from 10 to 50 people

• A return to work from Monday 14th December

• Expansion of QR codes to all retail.

The AHA|SA had made representation to the Transition Committee to bring the stand-up drinking component into place on Friday 11 December. There seemed no medical reason not to. That request had fallen on deaf ears, despite SA Health declaring on Tuesday 8 December that South Australia was virus free, despite more than 25,000 hospitality workers having completed COVID Marshal training and despite the widespread introduction of QR scanning including all retail – a strategy only enacted in South Australia.

This is, sadly, a characteristic of the Transition Committee model and their inability to grab opportunities to improve the lot of businesses and employees when it’s obvious there is no risk. There is no urgency from their perspective!

What has also become clear, and was reported in the media, is that SA Health have acknowledged that no transmission of the virus has been associated with any hotel or hospitality facility in South Australia…. not one and never!

“What has also become clear... is that SA Health have acknowledged that no transmission of the virus has been associated with any hotel or hospitality facility...”

Yet the industry - be it food and beverage, gambling, accommodation or entertainment - has carried a disproportionate burden of the lock down restrictions.

Adding to the misery of the situation was, as one national journalist observed, South Australia “accidentally put ourselves in lockdown” and as a result, all other states locked their borders to us!

We went from the safest state to a pariah next only to Victoria. We trashed any marketing and promotional advantage we had as the cleanest, safest state.

The obvious home goal was made worse by the calling off the lockdown after just one-and-half days, with the lifting in three, but leaving in place a harsh regime of restrictions that capped all venues at 100!

Simply viewed by many as economic vandalism, venues with a 1000 capacity were restricted to 100 despite COVID Marshals, despite QR scanning, despite a 1 in 2m - 50% capacity cap already in place, despite hospitality never being part of an outbreak.

Of course, we remain very grateful to Police Commissioner Grant Stevens who, despite SA Health’s ‘advice’ not to budge from 1 in 4m capacity (just 25%), allowed our industry to restore a more reasonable 50% and he applied it immediately on Friday 4 December.

The cost of the ‘Parafield Cluster’ lockdown will prove to be significant. Not just the three days lost trade and wages and waste but yet another wave of cancellations of functions, breakups, end of year parties etc. One major regional function centre suggested the lockdown put them back eight weeks because of panic amongst the public resulting in significant cancellations.

The cost to regional hotels and hospitality is proportionally much greater. One example amongst 300+ venues is Ceduna Hotel. It is 778km from the Waymouth Street Medi-hotel, yet it endured a three-day lockdown and severe restrictions for another ten or more days for what may or may not have happened in the Adelaide CBD.

The Government needs to commit to an independent review at some point in the future to identify what was good, what did work and what was nothing but poor or panicked decision making in isolation from the operators at the coal face.

“The cost of the ‘Parafield Cluster’ lockdown will prove to be significant... The cost to regional hotels and hospitality is proportionally much greater.”

The AHA|SA, as a result of the lockdown that should never have taken place, has engaged the University of Adelaide’s South Australian Centre of Economic Studies to make an assessment of the cost of the lock down, the cost of wages lost, goods and services trashed, revenue forgone and cancellations. Armed with this information, AHA|SA will be ensuring such a brutal overreaction can NEVER happen again.

On the brighter side, it’s the week before Christmas that provides an opportunity to start a recovery in revenue, jobs recovery and customer participation.

Safe trading! And wishing you all a prosperous New Year.

To watch Ian Horne's editorial talk, follow this link: https://youtu.be/bdAF5NpOq8U