With the ACT’s lockdown officially ending last night many businesses are set to reopen under reduced but still limiting restrictions until 29 October, when they will ease further.

Despite this, several peak bodies say the restrictions that remain will still severely reduce the capacity for many businesses to trade.

“For many businesses, sadly, today is a day for frustration rather than freedom. Frustration that there is so much risk involved in opening up that it really can’t be done,” Canberra Business Chamber CEO Graham Catt said.

Chief Minister Andrew Barr has consistently defended his government’s “public health first” approach to easing out of lockdown in the face of such criticism.

“It ensures the safest activities are recommencing and the riskiest ones wait until we have more of our population fully vaccinated,” Mr Barr said.

“Open up too early, have another outbreak, the loss of consumer confidence will be devastating and so a fully vaccinated Canberra is a much safer Canberra for the longer term.”

Rules ‘unacceptable for small business’

The Legislative Assembly’s Select Committee on the COVID-19 2021 pandemic response, chaired by Canberra Liberals leader Elizabeth Lee, held a session yesterday where they heard from seven representatives of Canberra’s business community.

Phillip Business Community president and owner of Canberra Martial Arts and Fitness, Tom Adam, told the hearing he will run his business as a gym for the next two weeks until he is allowed to resume classes.

The process of transforming his martial arts studio into a gym for two weeks of trade has seen him put in 52 hours of work over four days between Monday 11 and Thursday 14 October.

“The only way that I can survive in my business for the next six weeks is to completely change my business model,” he said. “This is unacceptable for a small business.”

Mr Adam said any profits he was able to make between reopening mid-2020 and this lockdown have been “completely wiped out” over the last nine weeks.

“It leaves us with very little at the end of this to be able to sustain even keeping the businesses open and to fight through to the end of the year,” he said.

Australian Hotels Association (AHA) ACT general manager Anthony Brierley said the four square metre rule will restrict Canberra’s hospitality businesses to approximately 25 per cent of their normal patronage.

“At this level of patronage, a hospitality business’ revenue is significantly overweighed by its costs of being open,” he said.

According to Mr Barr, the next step in the Pathway, to take effect from 29 October, enables a “significant increase” in business activity.

From then, licensed venues, cafes and restaurants will operate with a maximum of 25 people across the venue before density limits apply of one person per four square metres up to 100 patrons indoors, or one person per two square metres up to 150 outdoors.

“By that stage we would anticipate that our fully vaccinated population would have gone above 80 per cent,” Mr Barr said.

“In the end, economic activity is entirely linked to the success of the public health response.”

Despite those slated changes, Mr Brierley said “quite a few” Canberra venues won’t bother reopening until much later in the year.

Mr Brierley also expressed concern that while the ACT eases out of restrictions, financial support will be tapered back despite the settings leaving many hospitality businesses unviable.

“This has never occurred in any part of Australia throughout the pandemic. It will have devastating economic consequences for our industry,” he said.

The Chief Minister has previously acknowledged that targeted support for the hospitality industry would be needed because of the four-square metre rule.

The ACT Government’s Business Hub notes that “Businesses in the Tourism, Accommodation Provider, Arts and Events, Hospitality and Fitness (TAPAEHF) sectors will also receive a further top-up payment” in addition to the COVID-19 Business Support Grants.

It’s a similar story of restrictions for the retail sector, where non-essential retailers can operate a click-and-collect and click-and-deliver service or have up to two people from same household in a store at a time by booked appointment from today.

Braddon United Retailers and Traders spokesperson Kel Watt told Canberra Daily the online booking requirements in place for retailers is simply unworkable for the many small, locally run retailers who rely on foot traffic.

“It’s an incredibly onerous set of protocols that’s incredibly time consuming,” Mr Watt said.

“For small businesses … they simply don’t have the time and ability to run the online booking system and have appointments be open for the entire business day.

“These small businesses have to put in a whole new layer of bureaucracy and support that they were never geared up for and is such a cost or burden they will choose to not stay open.”

Mr Watt called on the government to be nimbler with rectifying any incongruous or simply impractical business limitations as they become apparent.

“I know no government official or Member of the Assembly can think of every possible case and every possible inconsistency, but as they emerge, be more responsive.”

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