SA hospitality sector calls for ongoing support post lockdown
While South Australia’s snap seven-day lockdown has ended, many hospitality operators are still keeping their doors closed while density restrictions are in place.
Venues are required to abide by the one person per four square metre rule which effectively results in businesses being limited to 25 per cent capacity.
But Australian Hotels Association SA boss Ian Horne said venues cannot operate in viable way at a quarter capacity.
“It’s about balancing health and the economy, and at this point in time, the health understandably is dominating people’s perceptions – at great cost to the economy and industry,” he told InDaily.
“We can’t see why we can’t go back in steps to 50 per cent and 75 per cent.”
The Salted Café in Adelaide’s West Lakes chose to remain closed after the lockdown lifted at the end of July.
Chris Reid, the café’s operator, said the costs of opening “far exceeds the financial return we’d get”.
“I gave my staff the opportunity to help me make my decision, as we always do… the head chef and front of house manager both agreed that financially it wouldn’t be viable for us to operate,” Reid told InDaily.
Reid said that the capacity restrictions meant they could only have 13 customers inside at any one time, which would not cover the café’s ongoing costs such as bills and wages.
Reid has also called for “some sort of broader assistance somewhere for hospitality industry”.
“Short-term, people in my industry are suffering… they still need to pay wages – we need that short-term influx of some sort of help,” she said.
Horne is also calling for a specific subsidy for cafes, restaurants and pubs similar to JobKeeper..
“Hotels alone employ 26,000 South Australians, so the industry employs significant numbers of South Australians – the vast majority of whom are now stood down,” he said.
“They won’t be coming back to work till we get something closer to 50 per cent – or more likely 75 per cent – capacity.”
Treasurer Rob Lucas said the Government was continuing “to monitor the situation” but would not be offering further assistance beyond the current the $3000 payments which have been handed out to around 2,500 businesses for the current period.
“Hopefully we can get back to trading conditions which will allow them to stay open and viable,” Lucas told InDaily.
“Some of them are saying their conditions don’t allow them to do that – we’ll, but at this stage we’re not offering any additional assistance post-lockdown.”
Sheridan Randall, 2nd August 2021
