As the hospitality sector continues to move through a time of uncertainty, what is not changing is our commitment to licensees receiving timely and accurate advice from us.

The way we communicate with our licensees remains at the core of our approach to this ever-emerging health response. The value of our social media accounts and emails to reach our stakeholders cannot be understated.

Each day, our staff have been on the front foot, providing important updates and responding to enquiries spanning all aspects of the liquor and gaming industries, including those from staff and licensees, industry representatives, patrons and community groups.

In fact, since March 2020, OLGR Communication staff have:

• issued more than 40 COVID-19 email updates to licensees resulting in high open rates

• responded to more than 700 email and Facebook enquiries and comment

• Seen our social media following grow by 68 per cent.

More than 1.2 million people have seen OLGR’s content on Facebook and more than 150,000 people have individually engaged with our content by liking, sharing or commenting.

You can follow us on our Facebook page  for regular updates, as well as sharable items, such as those in the ‘Spread the word, not the virus’ campaign the Attorney-General has referenced. We thank all licensees and staff that have liked, commented and shared our posts over the last six months, you’ve help increase the number of people that have seen our advice and for that we’re very grateful.

If you are not already subscribed to our updates, please head to justice.qld.gov.au/liquor-gaming to keep up with the latest.

We will continue to work closely with other State Government departments, key industry bodies including the Queensland Hotels Association to gain valuable insight into the key issues arising from staged restrictions in the state and value-add to our communication efforts with licensees into the future.

Venues fined $6,672 for failing to collect mandatory contact details

Compliance officers continue to find some venues not taking appropriate steps to ensure mandatory contact details are collected for every patron. So far this has resulted in OLGR issuing a number of licensees $6,672 worth of fines, with other fines presently under consideration.

It has also been found that some of the Apps being used by licensees do not allow for the contact information to be produced immediately to a public health officer as is required.

The latest information for businesses and patrons on collecting contact information for COVID-19 is available on the Queensland Health website. Common questions and answers are provided, including around how to collect and store contact information, use of mobile applications and privacy.

OLGR officers will continue to focus on contact information requirements and issue fines where licensees have not taken appropriate steps to comply.

Things we’ll be looking for include:

• the required information is collected for every guest. This collection process must be closely managed by venue staff. It is not acceptable to rely on patrons to voluntarily provide their information without verification from staff

• the contact information is kept in a way that the person in charge of the venue can immediately (within 1 hour) produce to OLGR officers if requested

• patron privacy is protected including by not allowing other patrons to view their details and not allowing for this information to be used for marketing.

I can’t emphasise enough how important it is for you to focus on establishing a system for contact tracing that complies with Queensland Health requirements.