Goya Dmytryshchak
Victoria’s community clubs have been left to “burn and die” by the state government’s roadmap out of COVID-19 restrictions, the industry head says.
The government’s roadmap to easing restrictions in metropolitan Melbourne is subject to the city recording a daily average of fewer than five cases by late October.
Club Managers Association of Australia state president and Yarraville Club chief executive, Chris Byrne, said the roadmap was unrealistic.
The club industry closed on March 23 and a re-opening on November 23 would see businesses shut for eight months with minimal or no revenue,” he said.
His association represents the not-for-profit sector such as sporting, welfare and cultural clubs.
“What we’ve been calling for is to get the industry open a lot quicker,” Mr Byrne said.
“In effect, the restrictions they’ve put over our industry are that draconian, they’re that health-specific, they’re not considering the economic issues.
“If you took the Victorian roadmap to reopening to NSW and Queensland, both of those states would be closed as well.
“It’s now coming out that it’s the most restrictive model in the world.
“We understand that the health issues are there but realistically COVID is not disappearing, it’s not going away.
“We need to learn to live with it and, as an industry and as a community, we need to get places reopen, we need to get our economy reopen, we need to get back to some level of normality – what we call the COVID norm, I suppose.”
Mr Byrne said he knew of a number of clubs in the local community that would not be able to reopen.
“If they do reopen, they won’t be able to deliver the number of community or sporting services they used to – they just won’t have the money,” he said.
“That’ll impact on the elderly, it’ll impact on the kids in sport … the longer we stay closed, the harder it is to recover and that then has a flow-on effect.”
