Australia’s restaurants and cafes hope to reopen to diners next month with their patrons seated 1.5 metres apart and without condiments such as salt and pepper on the table.
But the industry’s most controversial proposal – that diners who do not have the Covidsafe app give their name and details to the eatery to enter – appears dead on arrival after it was labelled “ill-advised” by a government minister.
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, confirmed on Tuesday he and the state and territory leaders had been provided with recommendations from two industry bodies outlining how restaurants, cafes and pubs could operate during the pandemic.
He said they had made no decisions on the future of the industry yet, but the guidelines created by the Australian Hotels Association and Restaurant and Catering Australia have been passed on to the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee.
It came after Restaurant and Catering Australia floated several proposals in a bid to restart the hospitality industry, which Australian Bureau of Statistics data showed on Tuesday had been ravaged by the coronavirus shutdown.
Wes Lambert, the chief executive of Restaurant and Catering Australia, told the Guardian the industry believed it would be safe to reopen with the “low-cost, practical” measures the industry group presented to the national cabinet on Tuesday.
“We’re working with the state premiers on hopefully getting restaurants reopened some time in June,” he said on Tuesday.
Lambert said eateries would enforce social distancing in waiting areas, set tables 1.5 metres apart, and use disposable or laminated menus that could be wiped down.
All touch points including tables and chairs would be cleaned after each use, and there would be no condiments such as salt and pepper on the tables.
Lambert added that restaurants would be advised to only use cutlery that could be washed at 80C in a commercial dishwasher, otherwise they would need to rely on recyclable disposable knives and forks.
“In addition we’re advocating that the states mandate Covid-19 safe training for hospitality employees,” he said.
But another proposal to demand diners who do not have the Covidsafe app give their name and number to a restaurant to assist health authorities was labelled “ill-advised” by the attorney general, Christian Porter, on Tuesday.
Porter said the government was introducing laws that would likely prevent such a requirement as part of privacy protections for the Covidsafe app.
“You can’t make it a requirement of entries,” he said. “I read that proposition … I think that would be skating very close to the ice of being a requirement. That would be rather ill advised in the circumstances.”
Restaurants and cafes, many of which are currently opening as takeaway venues, are considered less risky than entertainment venues such as pubs, bars and nightclubs.
But the Australian Hotels Association is optimistic that pubs will be able to begin trading again at a reduced capacity, such as 25-50%, with tables at least 1.5 metres apart.
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On Monday, the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, included pubs within a group of businesses including restaurants and cafes when she pointed to an “ambitious” target of June for venues to reopen.
Australian Bureau of Statistics data released on Tuesday found nearly one million people were now out of work due to the coronavirus, with workers in the hospitality industry hardest hit.
But Morrison said businesses needed certainty before they could commit to reopening.
“The last thing the business want … is what’s called the sawtooth, which means you open, you shut, you open, you shut, you open, you shut,” he said.
