COMPLACENCY A CHINK IN OUR COVID ARMOUR
Queenslanders have stayed ahead of the game to this point but you’re kidding yourself if we think we’re back to business as usual
There’s a new danger on our horizon. It’s threatening tourism, hospitality, employment and our economy.
It’s not COVID-19 … it’s Complacency 2021.
Just one year ago (but 500 years in mental and emotional toll), life as we knew it changed. We could no longer travel, could no longer leave our home and could no longer have people visit our home, we were locked down and locked out.
But look at us now. Despite the occasional hiccup, we’re mostly back to doing what we love – going out, visiting friends and family, even limited overseas travel.
There are few restrictions that we still feel in our everyday life. And compare a snapshot of any day here on the Gold Coast to the current lived experience in India, and you’ll remember just how lucky we are.
But we’re kidding ourselves if we think we’re back to business as usual.
Yes, life resembles the old normal … but near enough is just not good enough.
We’ve done magnificently well in this fight against the pandemic, but we’re a long way off claiming victory in terms of the financial toll it’s taken on our city.
Which is why the state government’s Check-In Qld app, mandatory at all hospitality businesses as of Saturday, is a welcome step forward. The app provides contact tracers with access to streamlined, relevant, legible and timely information and will be a crucial frontline tool for containing any future COVID-19 outbreaks.
But it’s still just a step when businesses need an almighty leap. Just ask Queensland Hotels Association CEO Bernie Hogan.
“It’s tough at the moment, a lot of people say ‘oh, it’s back to normal’, but it simply isn’t. A lot of our businesses are scratching their heads at the moment … and we have to do something to help those venues,” he told ABC Gold Coast’s Breakfast program.
“Hotels, pubs and clubs have not changed in their capacity limits since last September, they’re very constrained and that’s tough.
“It’s a very expensive way of running a businesses when you have these restrictions because it means you’ve got to have a lot more staff and we can’t have any more capacity.
“The rule is one person per 2sq m – at the very best that’s 50 per cent of regular capacity, but you add in chairs and exits and it’s not even 50 per cent. Then you have restrictions on things like buffets where all food must be handed to you by a staff member – that’s costly.
“No matter what business you’re running, if you can only have at best 50 per cent of your revenue and you have to increase your costs, it’s not a good way to run your business.
“So (with the app) we are looking for anything we can do to make the government feel more comfortable with us having more capacity in these venues.
“Contact tracing is going to be with us for a good while yet, and the app does make it as painless as possible and hopefully gives the government that confidence.”
The sad fact is that this app is overdue in Queensland, with NSW, South Australia and the ACT long before introducing similar technology.
And that speaks to the complacent attitude we seem to have adopted. As patrons,
we stopped worrying about restaurant restrictions as soon as we could go back to dining in with friends and family. But if we don’t push to change these restrictions on behalf of venues, those restaurants may not be around much longer.
There’s a similar complacency gap in our airports as well.
While we all dream of the day when we can safely travel the world again – and no doubt our businesses dream of the day when international tourists can visit again – we’re hardly setting up for the future.
Indeed, my own niece – who had to fly home from Germany due to a family emergency – hit an absolute departure dilemma when it was time to return to Berlin.
With almost every country demanding proof of a recent negative COVID test upon entry, she simply could not find a rapid testing service in all of Queensland. Instead, she had to fly to Sydney for one day just to journey to the international airport where she was tested and received results within hours – rather than the days’ wait in this state.
Is this a problem for most Queenslanders right now? No. But why not start thinking of the future … when travel might again become common under the new normal. Our airports should be investing in these rapid test stations now, before we’re scrambling to catch up yet again.
Life on the Gold Coast is good, but let’s not fall into a false sense of security.
COVID was an international game-changer, and now that people are coming back to play — we don’t want complacency to be the reason we lose.