Covid NSW: Sydney pubs and clubs to ban unvaccinated people after December 15 rule change

Six New South Wales clubs have banned unvaccinated staff and customers until at least February, even after it becomes legal for the un-jabbed to enter hospitality venues.

Currently, only the fully-vaccinated can visit non-essential services such as pubs, clothes stores and restaurants, with the unvaccinated finally allowed to join the party on December 15.  

While the measure has been credited by many for supercharging NSW’s vaccine rollout, it has also provoked staunch criticism from others. 

Five of the clubs opting to keep the rule in place are within the Northern Beaches council area of Sydney and the sixth is in Mosman on the city’s leafy north shore.

State Premier Dominic Perrottet said he expects such bans will be ‘rare’ and that businesses which extend bans on the unvaccinated must ensure they do not break the law.

Critics have said the measures exclude those who do not want to get vaccinated, with hardliners calling it a ‘two-tiered society’ (pictured, protesters in Sydney on November 7)

‘The NSW government expects the majority of businesses will open their doors to all customers from December 15,’ he told the Daily Telegraph.

‘Some may choose to exercise additional measures of caution for their patrons and staff, which is permissible providing they meet all relevant legal obligations.’

Originally, the freedom date for the unvaccinated was December 1, before being pushed back by a fortnight. 

The extended ban of the unvaccinated by some clubs has been backed by health minister Brad Hazzard, whose electorate of Wakehurst is in the Northern Beaches.

The Mosman Club (pictured) in Sydney is one of six clubs extending a ban on unvaccinated customers

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet (pictured) says he expects clubs extending the ban on unvaccinated staff and customers will be ‘rare’

Mr Hazzard is a member for one of the clubs extending the ban and said the club’s decision is ‘very sensible’.

‘My view as health minister is we are still smack in the middle of a worldwide pandemic and businesses have to make sensible decisions to protect their staff and their patrons,’ he said. 

Mosman Club chief executive Gerard Boyle said his staff are ‘unequivocally passionate’ about keeping the ban in place until February.  

Grant Easterby, the CEO of Dee Why RSL, said his club extended the policy based on ‘an overwhelming number of requests’ from staff and members.

Dee Why RSL (pictured) on Sydney’s Northern Beaches has extended a ban on the unvaccinated due to requests from staff and members

Currently in NSW, 91.3 per cent of people over the age of 16 are fully-vaccinated, with 94.2 per cent having received one dose.

The strict ‘vaccine passport’ rule, which is only in place in a handful of countries worldwide, has been credited for accelerating the state’s vaccine rollout during the brutal second lockdown, which saw Greater Sydney shut down for 106 days.

Similar measures are also in place in Victoria and will soon be in other states when their hard borders come down, leaving unvaccinated people essentially still living in lockdown and unable to access many services.

But critics have said the measures exclude those who do not want to get vaccinated, with hardliners calling it a ‘two-tiered society’.

The mandates have led to angry protests, particularly in Melbourne, with vaccine-sceptics furious at the measures.

Protesters are seen near the Parramatta River in Sydney on November 7 (pictured) at an anti-vaccine march, after the vaccine mandates caused outraged among sceptics