Why business advocates are concerned about COVID-19 reopening guidelines

The state government is working with business representatives to draft new COVID-safe guidelines, but at least one peak body representing businesses is concerned.

CEO of the Franchise Council of Australia, Mary Aldred, said she’s concerned the rules will be too complex and too costly for many businesses.

“They’re very complicated, they’re very lengthy, and there’s some grey areas,” she told Neil Mitchell.

Ms Aldred said she’s worried that small businesses will shoulder too much of the cost of complying with reopening rules, and many may not have the resources needed to comply.

“It’s very difficult, especially for small businesses where you’ve got a mum and dad cafe and they just don’t have the resources to get across huge volumes of information on reopening, so it’s been really tough for them,” she said.

“If you go to big shopping centres there’s security guards, there’s other staff and personnel trying to make sure people are doing the right thing, but just putting that cost and risk on to individual small businesses is just not something they can absorb at the moment.

“They’re operating on skeleton staff.”

Premier Daniel Andrews is expected to make an announcement on the reopening of more businesses in Melbourne on Sunday.

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