The New South Wales government is considering giving food vouchers for households to spend in restaurants and pubs across the state in a bid to boost the state’s economy amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
On Friday the Australian reported that the state’s treasurer, Dominic Perrottet, was weighing up making a proposal to give households $100 restaurant vouchers the centrepiece of the upcoming state budget.
The vouchers would be for use at cafes, restaurants and pubs, but could not be used for alcohol sales. People living alone would receive $50 vouchers.
The government has so far yet to confirm or deny the reports. In a statement to Guardian Australia, Perrottet said the November budget would “have a very strong focus on creating jobs, boosting the economy and keeping the community safe from Covid-19”.
“There is always a lot of speculation and conjecture ahead of the NSW budget, and this year is no different,” he said.
The premier, Gladys Berejiklian, also declined to confirm the report during a radio interview on Friday morning, saying the government was “still putting the finishing touches on the budget” and “looking at what we can afford”.
“We get how tough it is for families at the moment,” she told Sydney radio station 2GB.
The proposal would be one of a number taken by the government in an effort to boost the state’s hospitality industry after it was decimated at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic.
In September the minister for customer service, Victor Dominello, announced a “Covid-safe summer plan”, including a decision to relax outdoor drinking and dining regulations in Sydney.
A UK program similar to the voucher scheme, known as “Eat out to help out”, offered diners 50% off meals when eating in from Monday to Wednesday, with the discount capped at £10 per head. But it was not without controversy. Last month a study from the University of Warwick found that the scheme could have directly caused almost a fifth of new Covid-19 cases in the UK during August and early September.
But Dr Fiona Stanaway, an epidemiologist from the University of Sydney, said there were important differences between the UK scheme and the one outlined in NSW. Most crucially, the single $100 voucher would not encourage multiple trips to restaurants, she said.
“I mean, come on, $100 is one meal in Sydney,” she said. “Whereas an unlimited discount could mean someone is going out to dinner a couple of times per week.”
Stanaway said that while any scheme that encouraged people to spend more time in public was not without risk, the context in Australia and the UK was markedly different. On 1 August the UK was still recording more than 700 cases a day, while on Friday NSW recorded only four new locally transmitted cases.
“The scheme and context are completely different,” she said.
“Having said that, there is always going to be risk. We have a non-immune population and clusters can happen at any time. It’s fine for people to go to restaurants, but they still need to be Covid-safe. People still need to be careful. We’ve done really, really well, we’re in a great position, but we can’t stop paying attention to it basically because we’ll end up back where we were.”
