Andrew Bragg (NSW, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

We can all agree that the people on the front line of this pandemic have often been small-business people. These people have lost their incomes and their mental health. These are the barbers and the travel agents. They are the people who work in bars and who own cafes. As we track towards 80 per cent double-dose vaccinations, we should be looking to provide more opportunities for these businesses to get back on their feet. We should be looking to other jurisdictions which have already achieved a higher level of vaccination where they have made it possible for people to have a meal or a drink outside, and where there has been a huge push to deregulate and to cut red tape.

I think we should be open-minded about giving people who have had vaccinations more freedoms. We should give them incentives. We need to give incentives to people who have been living through 10 weeks of lockdown in New South Wales, and who are looking down the barrel of another eight or nine weeks of it. We need to provide incentives for people to get vaccinated and we also need to provide incentives for people who are running small businesses to maintain good mental health and to provide a livelihood for their families. I urge councils and the state government in New South Wales to look very closely at what has been done in jurisdictions like New York to incentivise people to have a meal or a drink outside where people are vaccinated. There is no problem with giving people special rights if they have had their vaccinations. We have to be open-minded about that. We have to tell the truth that that is the right thing to do and the only way we can get back to freedom.