‘I wanna keep going out’: Campaign urges young people to socialise responsibly – By Andrew Taylor Source: Sydney Morning Herald
Pasan Wijesena (2nd from right), owner of Earl’s Juke Joint in Newtown, said more customers were following COVID-19 rules compared to the first lockdownCREDIT:JANIE BARRETT
Source:SMH
Young people will be urged to follow COVID-19 hygiene guidelines and maintain social distancing as part of a new campaign to avert another shutdown of pubs, bars and restaurants.
The campaign devised by the Night Time Industries Association encourages young people to ‘Check. Check. Check. Keep COVID in Check’ and will be featured on posters, coasters and online.
NTIA chairman Michael Rodrigues said new rituals were needed for anyone leaving home before they gathered in public.
“Think ‘Slip-Slop-Slap’ for indoors,” he said, referring to a famous 1980s health campaign. “In the same way you might grab your wallet, keys and phone, we now all need to pack the sanitiser and grab a face mask.”
Mr Rodrigues said the campaign was aimed at people aged 18 to 35 because they were typically highly social and more likely to be at venues.
“There’s no particular problem with what this cohort are doing in relation to any other age group in the community,” he said. “But we want to keep everyone focused on doing the right thing to keep venues open and keep our city alive.”
Comedian Matt Okine said the campaign was about “rewiring” people’s understanding of nightlife.
“I wanna keep going out,” he said. “My life has always revolved around socialising and hospitality and food and wine and live performance. I love interacting with people and want to make sure we can keep doing it.”
The hospitality industry is worried about another lockdown after NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian warned last week of harsher restrictions if she did not see more people wearing face masks and businesses heeding COVID-safe rules.
Public health experts have also called for tighter restrictions on pubs, clubs and restaurants or another shutdown of such venues as fears grow about the state’s growing number of COVID-19 cases.
“The situation really is on a knife-edge,” Mr Rodrigues said. “Returning to lockdown would be a disaster for Sydney’s nightlife and wider economy.”
Ms Berejiklian has also told young people to cut back on socialising, but Mr Rodrigues said it would be difficult to police a cap on visiting venues.
“We need a common sense approach that doesn’t restrict customer choice or heap unnecessary burdens on venues or the police,” he said.
Pasan Wijesena, owner of Earl’s Juke Joint in Newtown, said venues’ efforts to follow COVID-19 regulations meant little if customers did not comply with the rules.
“Customers, for example, are the ones who try to cheat the rules by booking for 10 people, then showing up with more, or not checking in properly,” he said.
But he said more people were following COVID regulations compared to the first lockdown.
Mr Wijesena also said young people were being unfairly blamed for flouting pandemic regulations.
“Of course, young people make up the bulk of night time customers,” he said. “But I’ve found there a larger amount of older people who roll their eyes at masks, check-ins and elevator limits and think that it’s all a big overreaction.”
NSW Liquor and Gaming has warned there would be no second chances for venues that failed to adhere to social distancing regulations after the Garry Owen Hotel in Rozelle was fined $10,000 last week for “a litany of COVID safety breaches.”
Mr Wijesena said it was fair to expose venues that were blatantly not doing the right thing.
“But yes, there is a huge discrepancy between the expectations of hospitality venues versus shopping centres and supermarkets, where there seems to be almost zero social distancing and no expectation of mask wearing,” he said.
John Green, the Australian Hotel Association’s NSW director of liquor and gaming, said the contact tracing registers maintained at licensed premises had been crucial to the state’s ability to manage hotspots.
“While there have been some community transmissions linked to licensed premises, the reality is most of those premises are listed because potentially affected people may have attended those venues,” he said.
Mr Green said the state government was “rightly concerned” about people congregating in areas where there is community transmission of COVID, but another lockdown would devastate the hospitality industry.
