SA hospitality industry to seek compo from Optus
South Australian hospitality industry group, Australian Hotels Association SA, will seek compensation from Optus for its “devastating” network outage.
Thousands of pubs and restaurants were affected by the outage, with several venues forced to close altogether as EFTPOS, ATM machines, phone and internet services went down.
The potential loss to venues is estimated to be in the thousands as lunch trade was shut down.
Australian Hotels Association SA chief executive Anna Moeller told The Advertiser, “If you had everything with Optus, then your hands were very much tied and I suspect there would have been some venues that may not have been able to open up at all.
“We’ll be looking at all avenues of compensation, either through Optus or possibly through their … insurance for those who were severely impacted.”
Moeller said things could only have been worse if the outage occurred on Melbourne Cup day.
“It could have been significantly worse. Places were heaving yesterday,” she said.
“Had it been 24 hours earlier, the impact on the industry would have been ten-fold.
“There’s a lot of noise about going cashless and having a cashless society but this is a very good example of why we’re nowhere near ready for that.”
Restaurant and Catering Association chief executive Suresh Manickam said 57,000 member businesses nationally were affected.
“It has absolutely impacted the industry. We’ve had numerous members tell us about their frustrations and the potential loss of business,” she said.
“Just when they’re moving into an increased booking season, this has happened.
When we’re now talking about recovery after covid, this is a double whammy.”
Manickam expects Optus to reach out to affected businesses, however he shouldn’t hold his breath.
Optus has stated it will not refund customers over Wednesday’s outage, but it will face a review from the Federal government as to why the worst network failure in Australian history occurred.
The Advertiser spoke to several affected businesses.
Victoria Square cafe Argo on the Square Emma Urazobsky said more than 50 per cent of customers from their building were sent home because of the outage.
“The business upstairs had to send their staff home because they are with Optus and we have been sending people to the Central Markets to get cash out.
Jonathan Jackson, 9th November 2023
