The shrivelled soul of small business in Australia was on view in April 2020.....
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| Image found on Twitter |
The Sydney Morning Herald, 28 April 2020:
A chamber of commerce on Sydney's north shore has been forced to back down from comments demanding local businesses refuse entry to customers and staff who had not downloaded the COVIDSafe tracing app.
Ku-ring-gai Chamber of Commerce secretary Peter Vickers said he emailed between 1500 to 2000 businesses across its local government area on Monday directing them to ensure their customers had downloaded the app....
But Mr Vickers followed this email with another in the early hours of Tuesday morning, after some of the email's recipients informed him that such a direction was illegal.
The federal rules governing the app's operation state that a person must not coerce another into downloading the app, or refuse them entry or services on the grounds they have not done so.
Mr Vickers clarified in the subsequent email that businesses should only encourage people to install the app, while also taking aim at federal Health Minister Greg Hunt's decision to make the app voluntary.
"In fact he (Mr Hunt) should have ordered Apple and Android to compulsorily download the app to all phones in Australia," Mr Vickers wrote.
"The government forced businesses to close and even had the police chase sunbathers down the beach. They should be using the same force to open up again.".....
He said the fact the app was optional should give businesses the right to refuse service.
"You don't have to download the app but businesses should have the freedom to say we don't want infected people coming into our businesses."
