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news news Sydney lockdown hurting ACT businesses

The effects of the NSW lockdown are being felt far beyond the Sydney region, with Canberra businesses struggling due to lack of tourism numbers, especially during the recent school holidays.

Damian Brabender, executive chef at Otis Dining Hall in Kingston and the Truffle Farm at Majura, said the downturn in tourist trade has seen both businesses feeling the pinch.

“Currently at OTIS we have just experienced cancellations of 60% and the uptake of bookings has quartered,” he said.

“This shows exactly how dependent our hospitality and tourism sectors are on NSW travel.”

Things at the Truffle Farm are harder still, with a cancellation rate of up to 90% for events as part of the Canberra Region Truffle Festival – typically a huge winter tourism drawcard for the ACT.

It was hoped this year’s festival would draw in domestic visitors who would otherwise be overseas at this time of year, with the ACT Government banking on domestic tourism to bolster the local economy.

Mr Brabender said the current situation is “simply unsustainable”, especially as truffle growers only have a small window of time during the year to operate.

“The best hope for survival and continued success for businesses in these situations is, luckily, something that Canberrans do best, and that is supporting small local business.”

The Truffle Farm’s owner Jayson Mesman and executive chef Damian Brabender, who said the Sydney lockdown has caused a 90% cancellation rate for their truffle festival events. Photo supplied.

Calls for support from federal, state governments

Mr Brabender said he would welcome government support for the businesses affected by the NSW lockdown, with the ACT “100% dependent on our neighbour state” for tourism revenue.

“These businesses have had their character and resilience tested enough, now is the time that the question needs to be answered: ‘who in government is really looking out for hospitality and tourism?’”

Other sectors of the ACT have expressed their frustrations, too. Canberra Airport head Stephen Byron said earlier last week that state border closures were having an impact on not only the airline industry but the hotel and tourism industries as well.

“You think about what’s going on in the hotels in Canberra at the moment.

“They’ve been decimated by this closure and lockdown in Sydney … you’ve got hotels that are 200 rooms that [last night] had seven rooms occupied.”

Mr Byron has called for “sensible arrangements” between states and territories to keep borders open where a jurisdiction has zero COVID-19 cases. As at 13 July, the ACT had recorded no locally acquired cases in more than a year.

- Libby Kimber

NDIS independent assessments canned but concerns remain

Advocacy organisations are relieved the Federal Government has called a halt to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) independent assessments. While they hope to work with the government to co-design a peoplecentred scheme, they also remain prepared to oppose legislation they feel limits disabled people’s choice and control.

Following Friday’s (9 July) meeting of Disability Reform Ministers, Senator Linda Reynolds, Minister for the NDIS, announced that independent assessments in their current form would not proceed. Independent assessments were intended to make the NDIS more adaptable, less bureaucratic, and cheaper to run, but disabled people and advocates believed they were simplistic and overlooked individual needs. Several state and territory ministers – including the ACT’s Emma Davidson – opposed changes to the scheme.

On Friday, Ms Reynolds stated that instead, Ministers and disabled people would work together to design a personcentred model that would be equitable in access and planning.

The federal minister’s decision was a victory for the disabled community, said Emma Davidson.

Advocacy for Inclusion CEO Nicolas Lawler was pleased the “controversial and flawed” reforms would not go ahead, but also concerned that “the lack of a clear pathway forward … provided little clarity or security for people with disability”.

Bec Cody, CEO of the Mental Health Community Coalition ACT, was grateful to see Senator Reynolds “has finally decided to listen to what we’ve been saying all along – that independent assessments are not a way forward for participants in the NDIS”.

However, she remained “a little bit sceptical” the NDIS would be co-designed.

“I think the government will probably go back to the drawingboard and come up with some other way to push through some changes that aren’t necessarily going to work for participants,” Ms Cody said. “The Coalition tends to run ahead and drop new changes on people without necessarily thinking about how it is going to impact them.”

Progressing changes without consulting people with disability would make it difficult for them to trust the NDIA, Mr Lawler said.

The government, he insisted, must ensure people with disability were actively involved at every level of reform design, and that their voices and experience inform the NDIS.

Advocacy for Inclusion and the disabled community would oppose reforms if they reduced access or choice and control under the NDIS.

Ms Cody also encouraged the government to work with mental health and disability peak bodies across Australia to listen to what participants have to say. The MHCC ACT would be happy to work with the government.

“Realistically, we just want to see this work for people,” she said. - Nick Fuller

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