The Sydney businesses and areas hit with most COVID fines

AHA NSW director of liquor and policing John Green said pubs have had to adapt to new rules quickly with most introducing QR codes for contact tracing months ago.

“Hotels have had to deal with constantly changing COVID rules – more than five public health orders and multiple safety plans – but it is pleasing to see the overwhelming majority are compliant,” Mr Green said.

The state’s 1200 registered clubs are spending $54,000, on average, to comply with the current COVID-19 regulations, a ClubsNSW spokeswoman said.

“This includes the cost of additional technology, temperature checks, the provision of hand sanitiser, frequent cleaning of high-touch areas and the introduction of COVID-safe marshals,” the spokeswoman said.

“Of the clubs with digital sign-in systems, 57 per cent currently require patrons to sign out, even though it is not mandatory, it reduces the burden placed on contact tracers.”

The NSW Government needs to engage “meaningfully” with multicultural family businesses that run restaurants and cafés to ensure that if English is not their first language, it’s not also a barrier to COVIDSafe compliance, Restaurant and Catering Australia CEO Wes Lambert said.

“For these businesses, a $1,000 fine cuts a lot deeper compared to a larger venue, for some it could represent an entire week’s profits for a small business already doing it tough,” Mr Lambert said.

NSW Minister for Customer Service Victor Dominello said most businesses do the right thing, but “we must be vigilant and cannot drop the ball with summer around the corner”.

“It frustrates me that there are still some cowboys out there who think they are above the law,” Mr Dominello said. “Businesses have had long enough to get their houses in order and the recent blitzes are a powerful reminder that complacency still exists.”

The Golden Sheaf Hotel in Double Bay was the first to be fined under the NSW Government’s COVID enforcement powers when police were called to disperse a crowd of about 250 people queueing to enter the venue on July 9.

Last week Odyssey Restaurant in Leichhardt was fined $10,000 after groups were seen mingling and dancing in the venue.

Liquor & Gaming director of compliance Dimitri Argeres said social distancing ignorance led to two $5,000 fines being issued to the restaurant.

“It’s hard to fathom how staff could have failed to notice and stop things getting out of hand as patrons had in effect created multiple dance floors,” Mr Argeres said.

Earlier this month inspections of 74 hospitality venues across south-west Sydney found 13 were not registered as COVIDSafe, 39 had no current safety plan, 20 lacked proper record keeping, seven were not properly adhering to social distancing, two had hygiene issues and 13 had no COVID-19 safety marshal.

“One venue had not registered as COVID Safe, had no safety plan, had not recorded any patron details since July, had no conditions of entry and had not spaced seating and tables to allow for physical distancing,” Mr Argeres said.

There are plans for more inspection blitzes across the state this month.

Mr Dominello said safety plans can be downloaded online and Service NSW can help businesses be COVIDSafe.