Many hospitality businesses have closed down. Even ones that have been open for 30 years and are a part of Perth's history.

Many hospitality employees have lost their jobs, homes, and financial security.

And the decline in the mental wellbeing of hospitality business owners is widespread. Decades of work is being eroded for an industry that employs more people than any other.

WA's premier Mark McGowan has done a great job in reducing the impact of the pandemic, and the people of Perth have been kept safe and free.

We applaud his great work and resilience. 

However the latest extension of Stage 4 restrictions is nonsensical, considering Perth hasn't had a community transmission of the virus in nearly 6 months, our hard border closure is working well, hence an extension to the current stage of restrictions will greatly impact the livelihood of hospitality businesses & workers. Who have all faced hardship for the past many months.

We are petitioning for there to be a cap of total people in a venue, instead of a blanket rule of 2sqm of legal capacity. So allowing legal capacity, up to a maximum of 500 people, in a venue for any hospitality business with a legal capacity of less than 1,000. It will allow small businesses to open, be profitable, and not cause irreversible damage where they are forced to shut.

Because:

1. A tavern with a legal capacity of 400, can only hold 200 people and barely make ends meet. Yet Optus Stadium can have a line of 30,000 people on top of each other for 1 hour.

2. A small bar that has a legal capacity of 100 won't open because it can't make money due to capacity restrictions, yet a bus or train can have more people in one carriage, without any restriction on numbers.

3. A restaurant can only seat 60 people under current restrictions, however a bar with a legal capacity of 1,000 people can have 500 people in one room a few doors down.

Either the hard border closure works, or it doesn't.

If it works, there's no reason to hurt hospitality businesses and workers any further.

Let's allow hospitality businesses to open to a maximum capacity of 500 across the board.

This way we can help the industry that's suffered more than any other because of this pandemic. It is only fair, it is safe, and if it doesn't work we can always revert back to tighter restrictions.