Australia’s rigid rules worth copying
Aweek ago, I stood at the entrance to a rooftop bar in Brisbane. The security guard wanted to check my phone before he would let me in. ‘‘Have you scanned in?’’ he said, pointing to the Queensland Covid QR code on the wall. Then he made me open the Covid tracing app and prove it before he waved me in.
We sat down but we couldn’t get a drink till our waitress saw we had scanned in. She seemed more worried about checking the Queensland Covid app than checking my daughters’ IDs to prove they were of drinking age.
Welcome to travelling in Australia under Covid-19, where checking in on a Covid tracing app is mandatory.
In Queensland, it’s been the state rule since July 9: If you want to dine at a restaurant, attend an indoor wedding, or go to a shop, gallery or museum, you have to scan first.
But rather than penalising punters for not scanning in, the burden falls on venues and proprietors who must display the app at the entrance, check it’s been scanned and store this information for 56 days. If they don’t, they risk being fined.
One thing we learned while travelling in Australia under Covid is that rules are set by each state and they’re different. Queensland is considered stricter than New South Wales, for example.
Even in Byron Bay in New South Wales, which hasn’t clocked a community case for some time, we had to scan in everywhere. I had to complete a Covid questionnaire before I could hire a car. Before we checked into our hotel, I had to fill in a Covid form: Even though I had prepaid, I couldn’t turn up at reception without letting them know I had no Covid symptoms and I had not been near anyone with Covid. We also had to check out an hour earlier than normal – because of stricter cleaning requirements at accommodation venues.
All these extra rules and checks felt sensible.
We were in Byron Bay heading for Brisbane on June 18 when Sydney’s community cases were rapidly spreading. Queensland acted quickly, prepared to turn away NSW visitors or residents returning from Sydney’s Covid hotspot. New Zealand didn’t close the border to NSW till six days after Sydney’s first community cases were detected.
As we drove on the M1 into Queensland from Byron Bay (the day before the Sydney Covid traveller arrived in Wellington), digital warnings flashed on road signs that police patrols of NSW visitors and Queensland returnees would begin from 1am.
Another difference we noticed between our two countries is mask wearing. As soon as you enter an Australian airport, you have to don a mask: A rule that has been mandatory since January. At Ballina Airport in Byron Bay, we weren’t allowed into the premises to farewell my older daughter who left three days earlier than the rest of us. We waved her goodbye at the automatic door. Australians seem to be beating us at vaccinations: Although Australia’s vaccination programme is not perfect, 24 per cent of Australians have at least one vaccinae shot compared with about 13 per cent of Kiwis. While my daughters’ 84-yearold grandmother still hasn’t received her jab in Wanaka, I caught up with an old university friend in Byron Bay who had received both shots of AstraZeneca. He would be considered low-risk here, at aged 54 with no health issues.
We got home from Queensland on Tuesday night. The next day, we learned that Wellington had been exposed to Covid by a single traveller.
Here, our Government is pleased that 2.87 million people use the Covid tracing app and thousands more than usual have been scanning in daily since Wednesday when Wellington went into level 2. A Ministry of Health spokesman told me that 486 people have received Covid app alerts because they were at one of the locations of interest.
But we already know that up to 2500 people visited Te Papa on Saturday when the traveller was there, and it was just one of 16 locations he went to during his stay, suggesting that many more people didn’t scan in.
The Government has previously pondered making Covid scanning compulsory – and putting the onus on proprietors to ensure we do as we’re told. It might be time to agree the Aussies have got it right on this one.
All these extra rules and checks felt sensible.