FOLLOWING Sydney’s covid outbreak, Canberra small businesses are being pushed to the brink, with some facing the worst week of trade since the height of covid restrictions last year, according to Braddon’s United Retailers and Traders (BURT). 

BURT is calling for the ACT government to provide immediate emergency support for local small businesses, with spokesperson Kel Watt saying: “The impact of the Sydney outbreak has spread beyond the NSW borders. There is a de facto shutdown occurring in Canberra.

“Local businesses are reporting the worst five days of trade since restrictions began easing. Cafes and restaurants in particular are shutting doors and sending staff home early.”

Mr Watt blames the lull in customers on the more than 50 people that police had to order home to Sydney over the weekend after they were caught staying in a Braddon hotel.

“It is now clear the 50-odd selfish idiots from NSW who chose to break their state’s lockdown order and come to the ACT have jeopardised the livelihoods of Canberra business owners and their staff,” Mr Watt says.

“The NSW government has announced a suite of measures to support people impacted financially by their lockdown. If there was any justice, they would include Canberrans.

“The ACT government should do two things immediately. The first is deliver immediate financial support. The second is to demand the NSW government compensate them.

“The crisis faced by ACT businesses is a direct result of NSW failures and residents.”

Despite things appearing rosier for the ACT business sector in recent months, Mr Watt says many local business owners have said their ongoing trade was tenuous.

“The NSW outbreak has derailed recovery very quickly and customer numbers have dropped through the floor,” he says.

Braddon businesses aren’t alone in voicing concerns of a lack of trade over the past week, with the Canberra Business Chamber CEO Graham Catt yesterday (June 29) telling “CityNews” that Canberra’s already struggling businesses and tourist attractions have been hit by a “wave of cancellations” since areas of Sydney went into lockdown last week.

“In the school holiday period we’d normally be seeing a lot of people traveling to Canberra to visit friends and family and a large number of people on their way to the snow and down to other parts of the region that of course now can’t,” Mr Catt said.

One tourist attraction that’s been hard-hit by the latest lockdown, Cockington Green, confessed that business operators are “fatigued and concerned” by the lost opportunity caused by travel restrictions introduced due to the recent COVID-19 outbreak in NSW.

Its director of operations Mark Sarah said: “This is the second major holiday period which has been wiped out for the local tourism industry in six months following the Sydney shutdowns in late December and January.”

ACT businesses hit by ‘wave of cancellations’