Country Cafes and Cafeterias Conscripted as Cops
Western Victoria MP Bev McArthur used a Members Statement in Parliament this week to express her concern over the conscription of regional businesses into a de facto police force for the Government.
Businesses in regional Victoria now face a fine of $9913 if they “consciously fail to check their customers are not from metropolitan Melbourne”.
Mrs McArthur raised the fact that, “For a number of families in country Victoria their children have moved from urban Melbourne and are working from home in the country. Are these people going to be subject to these new rules and regulations?”
“The businesses that are struggling to keep open and even open up are now going to be faced with this enormous extra burden.”
One constituent wrote to the Member for Western Victoria and asked, “How much more compliance do we need to do to get our businesses back on track?”
Mrs McArthur said, "Businesses being required to site identity evidence of customers at pain of significant monetary penalty, is outrageous."
“With this impractical government red tape, businesses will just decide it is not worth reopening or continuing to close for good.”
“Businesses should not ever have to be policemen for government.”
16 October 2020