One staff member is about to give birth, one has quit and another one has had a “nervous breakdown”, so Phil Turner needs to get back to his pub in South Australia.
Key points:
- Marree Hotel publican Phil Turner has been waiting for three weeks but are yet to hear from SA Health
- He and his wife are seriously concerned about their staff’s stress levels and the immediate fate of the pub
- The couple are fully vaccinated and have not been to any hotspots
The well-known Marree publican has been stuck in NSW for the last 21 days as he waits to be granted an exemption to re-enter SA.
Mr Turner, who believes there is no reason why his border exemption would remain unanswered or declined, has been anxiously waiting to hear from SA Health.
“I’d walk over hot coals if that’s what we had to do,” he said.
Mr Turner says there are licensing implications around who manages the hotel and he is the only one with the ability to do so.
On top of that, they’ve got a full house.
“We’re also looking after the emergency workers who are staying in the hotel, as well as SA Police who are monitoring the Birdsville Track,” Mr Turner said.
Supplied
)No word on the wait
Mr Turner and his wife Marilyn were moments away from leaving NSW when the latest Sydney outbreak occurred and they found themselves stranded.
“We left Marree in June to go and pick up a 34-person tour and bring them on an outback tour through NSW to the SA outback,” he said.
“As the outbreak spread into regional NSW, we packed up our caravan and moved towards the SA border.
Mr Turner, who immediately cancelled the tour when the outbreak began, said he and his wife were fully vaccinated and had not been in a hotspot.
“We just don’t understand why they won’t let us back in,” he said.
ABC News: Gary Jon Lysaght
)Baby on the way
The managers of the Marree Hotel are about to have their first baby and have to travel to Port Augusta a month in advance — but the date they planned to leave has already passed.
“The damage has already set in, our managers of course are extremely stressed about this, when they shouldn’t be — expecting their first child,” Mr Turner said.
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“We’ve already had a key member of staff have a nervous breakdown, we’ve lost our chef, also due to the same sort of pressures.
In a statement, SA Health said it was “streamlining” applications using an “automated online portal”.
“We are notifying people to resubmit their application through the new online portal and provide evidence of their vaccination status and travel history within the past 14 days, which will be taken into consideration on a case-by-case basis,” the department said.
“By actively using people’s vaccination status as a measure to assess exemption applications, we are helping to protect the health and safety of South Australians.”
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