On Tuesday, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced that almost all people throughout Queensland must be fully vaccinated by December 17. This means non-vaccinated people will be banned from pubs, clubs, restaurants, and most non-essential indoor and outdoor venues.
Federal Member for Capricornia Michelle Landry has been encouraging all of the Capricornia electorate to get vaccinated but believes the Premier’s restrictions have gone too far.
“While vaccination remains the safest and most important means for Australians to protect themselves and their loved ones from COVID-19, I cannot support the QLD Premier’s new restrictions that hurt small business, Ms Landry said.”
“I have been inundated by small businesses from across Capricornia who are concerned about what these new restrictions mean for their staff and customers.
“Small business has already felt the effects of lockdowns, capacity restrictions, and workforce shortages and now they will be forced to police who enters their premises based on their vaccination status.
“The QLD Government are so worried that their hospitals are not able to cope with a COVID outbreak that they are shifting responsibility to small business.
“Latest data shows that hospital ramping has hit 45 percent in Rockhampton alone. This means almost every second patient who arrives in an ambulance is waiting for treatment for longer than 30 minutes.”
Ms Landry said the Federal Government have been clear that vaccinations should not be mandatory.
“I believe the best way forward is to encourage vaccinations and not impose unfair restrictions on small businesses that will be detrimental to their customer base and their workforce.
“I call on the Labor Members for Keppel and Rockhampton to stand up for small business and publicly oppose these new restrictions on small business,” Ms Landry said.
