New South Wales has made changes to the numbers allowed to populate a place of worship, excluding Weddings and Funerals. In Victoria, Premier Dan Andrews has hinted at futher exemptions being made available from Sunday, 25 October 2020.
New South Wales
Religious gatherings and places of worship (EXCLUDING weddings and funerals) can have up to 300 people – as long as they have a Covid-safe plan
Gyms will need a Covid safety marshal only if there are more than 20 people in the gym at one time
Brad Hazzard, the health minister, was also annoyed that Hillsong founder Brian Houston went to the media to complain about restrictions on church functions, saying discussions were going on with religious leaders – but nothing from Houston came into his office.
He told a press conference:
I have heard in the media, on 2GB, that some churches felt that they weren’t being listened to. I assure you, you were and I’m sorry if you didn’t think you were.
But unfortunately I heard those messages through the media, I didn’t hear them to my office.
Where we have had messages come to us, we have tried to to respond through exemption processes.
For example, we have already granted exemptions to St Mary’s Cathedral, St Andrew’s Cathedral, the Auburn Gallipoli Mosque, the Central Synagogue.
Hazzard said it would be up to the health officers to determine if Hillsong could hold more people at its church.
In Victoria
(from Daniel Andrews’ Press Conference, 21/10/2020)
Q: Can you explain what is behind the continued restrictions on religious institutions?
Daniel Andrews:
There are significant concerns in the general public about those gatherings in so far as … this is not a licensed premises, not a regulated environment. I think there is some concern.
… Because there is a sense that people are distancing, an authorised officer or police officer is not going to walk into the middle of a mass and say this is all – can you imagine if that happened? The offence that people would take. And it would be quite a thing.
So it isn’t a unique environment. It not like it is a pub, where there is a redline and a green line, and there is a license, and there is a responsible service of alcohol and all the other things.
I know there’s been some comparisons, people can be outside at the pub but we can’t [be in church and] celebrate mass – they are two different things.
The good news is, though, we are looking at this very carefully and I hope on Sunday to be able to give to people of faith what they have been craving and missed all this year.
But it has to be safe. I am not complaining that people are making the comparison, I’m just trying to make the point that some of the hospitality-church comparisons, I don’t think they are actually fair. They are not necessarily accurate. But I understand the concern.
People want to get back to temple, the mosque, church, it just has to be done in a different way, in a Covid-safe way, and hopefully we can take some further steps.
