President’s Message

“A s you would be aware the Qld Premier made an announcement yesterday in relation to the COVID-19 relaxation of restrictions for Queensland to take effect from noon Friday 3 July 2020. The updated Roadmap to Easing Restrictions for Queensland is available here for your viewing, and the move to Stage 3 has been brought forward by 10 days. We are so fortunate to be in Queensland, and we do hope that all Queenslanders will stay safe during this pandemic. https://www.covid19.qld.gov.au/government-actions/ roadmap-to-easing-queenslands-restrictions

On Friday we advised you that Dogs Queensland has been progressing with our proposed Industry Plan for Events, which is required as we would be seen as the Industry Leader for dog events across all our disciplines in Queensland. This would encompass all areas of our business – training or competitions for all disciplines – conformation, obedience, agility, lure coursing etc. If you have not yet read the Presidents message I would urge you to do so. The link is here; https://emarketing-au.s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws. com/59095/0idpQYDQHsoMGv5e62gOXmVDrHvXrLuCx_ K1eksdZU0/2441287.pdf

From noon Friday 3 July, events are allowed for fewer than 500 people with no approval needed when following a COVID Safe Event Checklist. However events for 500 to 10000 people still need a COVID Safe Event Plan that is approved by the Queensland Public Health Unit.

Many of you believe it is simple to return to events as before – let’s be clear it is not a simple process. Key requirements are set forth below; • Contact tracing requirements and record keeping protocols need to be adopted and put into place.

• Sites that events are held at need to be of sufficient size to allow for the number of people attending, and the layout compared to how you have experienced events in the past will in most cases be vastly different.

• Entrances and exits to the events will need to be attended at all times, stringent cleaning measures will need to be in place and records kept. Assembly areas may need to be moved and numbers limited in those areas. We will need extra workers to ensure that we meet the requirements.

• Social distancing practices will need to be stringently practiced and how we do this in the best way possible to keep our members, our workers and vendors safe will all need to be documented and these protocols adhered to.

• How we meet density requirements (4 square metres per person for all venues) and how this will apply to the various sites and disciplines will need to be demonstrated.

These are just a few of the items that need to be addressed for us to move forward. It is imperative that we get this right. There are high penalties in place for breaches and this is something that we cannot afford either financially or reputation wise. Similarly, our Dogs Queensland insurer will need to be satisfied with the measures we have in place.

As soon as we have further updates we will let you know. However it is important to realise that although the restrictions are being lifted this week, that our business and the affiliated Clubs are still not in a position to be able to return to events ‘this week’. We should be able to give you a further update in the next week with the progression of our Covid Safe Event Checklist and how this will work.

Your Board has scheduled an additional Board Meeting next Monday 6th July to review arrangements.

Members are asked to appreciate that this is an ever changing and evolving situation. The Dogs Queensland Board and Executive will continue to regularly review the State Government regulations with a view to commencing all dog events at the earliest possible opportunity. Ulla Greenwood, President ”