CORONAVIRUS — VACCINATIONS — BOTTLE SHOPS
67. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the Premier:
I note the advice sent to the
Premier from the Chief Health Officer regarding the removal of the requirement
for proof of vaccination in bottle shops posted on the website today, dated
Tuesday, 22 February, and the time was 10.45 am. Did the Premier have written
advice relating specifically to bottle shops to hand on or before Friday when he made the announcement about removing that
requirement or was he just making the rules up as he went along?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
On
Friday, we had a meeting of what is called the State Disaster Council/the state
emergency committee of cabinet—it has two names—and at
that meeting there was a discussion about a range of things, including the
arrangements around the removal of what is termed the hard border on 3 March.
At that meeting, there was a discussion about bottle shops, and the decision
was made about bottle shops following verbal advice from the Chief Health
Officer at that meeting. The Chief Health Officer's advice was that the
average interaction in a bottle shop is somewhere in the vicinity of three minutes, as opposed to other venues where people
might go for a considerable period; for instance, we come here, we show
our proof of vaccination and we are in here for hours upon hours on end. You go
into a restaurant, cafe or bar, you could well be in there for half an hour, an
hour, two hours, five hours or whatever it might be, but the average
interaction in a bottle shop is very, very short. Therefore, as part of our
evolving policies on these matters, the decision was made that proof of
vaccination in bottle shops would no longer be required.
It may well be that other things
will change. It is one of those things. Over the last two years, we have had to
make many decisions and change policies as time goes by based upon the
circumstances that we face. Today, the written advice, following on from the
verbal advice, was received and I think it has been published and I think the
member just referred to it.