From the General Manager

IAN HORNE – AHA|SA GENERAL MANAGER

This article was written before the 10 March 2022 government announcements were made.

Finally Common-Sense Prevails

WATCH VIDEO: https://youtu.be/xMsM9XRDHGo

It would seem SA hotels and hospitality are on the cusp of having many COVID-19 restrictions lifted or at least further modified. This is clearly welcome, essential and not before time.

Hospitality has been amongst the most severely impacted sectors since the Australia-wide closure of 23 March 2020. We now find ourselves at the two-year anniversary with restrictions finally being mostly lifted.

COVID-19 has tested our industry, our operators and our staff – all 26,000 of them, like nothing in history.

There have been casualties including permanently closed businesses, fire sales and thousands of loyal employees stood down, made redundant or had hours and income severely curtailed.

The industry has, over the journey, struggled to be heard with decision makers, despite their best intentions, being unable or unwilling to consult in any meaningful way. Industry operators learned their fate as to restrictions, lockdowns and lockouts from the media via press conferences that, at times, resembled an exercise in self-congratulating and mutual admiration. A harsh assessment perhaps, but in the absence of any true consultation and discussion with affected industries on a regular and cooperative basis, the criticism must stand.

So, have we learned anything about managing a COVIDlike pandemic in the future?

I think that after the State Election on 19 March 2022, whoever wins Government must implement a wide reaching and detailed enquiry into all aspects of COVID-19 and its management.

SA Best, Frank Pangallo MLC has called for a Royal Commission. Whether it requires such a vehicle, any enquiry needs to be independent and transparent.

Have we learned anything about managing a COVIDlike pandemic in the future?

Such an enquiry would not be a ‘witch hunt’ but rather a genuine effort by the State to learn what worked and what didn’t. It would be an opportunity to discuss strategies used, decisions made and the consequences of those decision. It would be an opportunity to demystify some of the ‘advice’ and evidentiary basis of decisions that so severely impacted live music, dancing, standing and drinking, various capacity limits, inconsistencies, etc.

Without such a vehicle of review, we are destined to repeat the same mistakes and cause equivalent damage.

The AHA|SA was forthright in our advocacy extending that on three occasions to engage SA Centre of Economic Studies at the University of Adelaide to analyse in detail the economic and social impact on Hotels of the November 2020 lockdown, the July 2021 lockdown and the five-week severe restrictions imposed of 25% sit-down capacity through January 2022.

We sought this analysis so that, at sometime in the future, the real impact could be recalled with accuracy.

One of the first orders of business, post the State Election for the next Government, should be the establishment of such an enquiry.

The hundreds of thousands of South Australians so severely affected deserve nothing less.