Phil Anderson, owner of the Taralga Pub, is baffled.
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"How can the government group a city nightclub, filled with 2000 people, alongside a country pub that's lucky to see 20 people through the door on any day?" he said. "It's strange."
Mr Anderson is referring to the Roadmap to Recovery revealed by Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday, which is a template for the states to implement their easing of COVID-19 restrictions.
He said that, while it depends on what the NSW Government decides, he believes it will be nine to 12 weeks before pubs are allowed to open, and then with restrictions as to numbers.
Mr Anderson is adding his voice to the Australian Hotels Association (AHA) CEO Stephen Ferguson, who complained on Friday that they had been "blindsided" by the announcement.
"The roadmap to recovery measures announced today have not provided a plan to help pub and hotel operators who are being pushed to the wall by mounting debt and bills for their closed venues," he said.
"There is inconsistency between businesses, why can baristas get work but not bar staff?
"Why can only 10 people be allowed in a dining area of a huge venue that could safely socially distance 120?
"Our phones have been running hot this afternoon with confused members worried about their livelihoods, their staff and their mounting bills."
At the Taralga Pub, which features no poker machines and offers the only dining in the town, the business is trading at 20-30 percent of their normal takings, while their employees have dropped from 20 to four.
"We're trying to keep them employed and break even," said Mr Anderson, who said he had not received any money from stimulus and JobKeeper programs as yet.
"Hopefully they'll revise the plan and let us open the dining room so we can trade as a restaurant.
"It's hard for country pubs to exist. For us, we lost our entire annual profit last year due to drought, fire and flood - there was 25-30 percent of normal turnover over summer. Then just as we were about to make some money, we shut down.
"We didn't get bushfire relief because Taralga didn't actually get hit, even though people couldn't get here because the fires were close.
"It feels a bit like rural businesses have been forgotten."
At Collector's historic Bushranger Hotel, licensee Bob Carter said that while he understood it was hard for the government to legislate for everyone, smaller country pubs are in a different position to the ones in town.
"In smaller country towns most of the boys are drinking in someone's shed, anyway," he said.
"It's certainly been affecting us - we're down 90 percent on takings, just doing take away, and not even making enough to pay the lease, which is $1200 a week."
Mr Carter said he believed a better plan would see the pub doors open for food, with social distancing, a closed bar, and outside eating. He would also prefer to see locals only coming along.
"At least you know where they've been the last six weeks - people are highly suspicious of outsiders," he said.
"I don't envy the government, but it's not much fun and there's no end in sight."
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AHA NSW and national president Scott Leach said the industry, which was the heart of the community in regional areas, many of which are clear of COVID-19, had basically been left abandoned.
"During times of emergency like the recent bushfires, pubs are the places people turn to for help - we are the centre of our towns and suburbs and proudly so," he said.
"That's why we were among the first to act to close down and protect people from the pandemic. I can assure you as a publican, our industry is not in "hibernation" - your typical country pub is losing around $30,000 each month and many of them are located in places which have never even seen a case of COVID-19.
"If Australia wants their local to make it through this crisis and be there for the recovery we need a bit of support - there really is a limit to how much debt we can take before many of us have to close for good."
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