‘Kicking us when we’re down’: Melbourne entertainment venues vexed by ‘typo’ in Covid roadmap
Melbourne entertainment venues won’t be able to open to fully vaccinated patrons indoors when lockdown ends, because a Covid-19 rule change contained a “typo”.
When the roadmap changes were unveiled on Sunday, a document shared by the premier Daniel Andrews said pubs, clubs and entertainment venues would open to up to 20 doubledosed people from 11.59pm on Thursday.
But an updated version of the document, published on the official coronavirus Victoria website, notes only pubs and clubs are permitted to have patrons indoors, while entertainment venues can host up to 50 outdoors.
Andrews confirmed the “typo” was rectified within hours.
“That was corrected and again I apologise if there’s any sense that a sector has been included that shouldn’t have been, but it does not include entertainment venues,” he said on Tuesday.
“Entertainment venues will be covered by 80%. I know that it’s frustrating and everyone would like to be open at the one time.
“But we’re not talking about a threemonth gap between one milestone and the next. It is literally eight or nine days and then we can have everything open.”
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Kyran Wheatley, who operates the Comedy Republic theatre and bar with fellow comedians Rhys Nicholson and Alex Dyson, said the rug had been pulled out from under them.
The Melbourne CBD venue’s Covid-19 marshal discovered the document had been “quietly changed” after it had already scheduled eight shows.
All have since sold out and the owners are worried they will have to refund $4,000 in tickets.
“It’s the first proper income we’ve had in months,” Wheatley said.
“I’ve got a staff member flying back from Perth where he’s been during this lockdown because we’re opening up again (and) another staff member who brought forward their second dose of AstraZeneca from 12 weeks to eight weeks.
“These are outcomes because of what the premier says.”
The former ABC Triple J presenter said it was emblematic of the ongoing disrespect for the entertainment industry, one of the hardest hit during the pandemic.
“Talk about kicking us when we’re down,” he said.
“They cracked open the door to do just a whisper of a show and then slam the door shut quietly the next day.”
While he agrees Victoria can’t open up everything at once, Wheatley maintains restrictions will still remain unviable for many live performance venues when the state moves to a density limit of one person per four sq metres.
“For us that’s 25 people. That’s 15% of our capacity,” he said.