³Ô¹ÏÍøÕ¾

NSW Labor is concerned about the fact that the vaccine certificate on the Service NSW app won’t be ready in time for opening and will leave businesses in the firing line as our state begins to open tomorrow.

Reports today saying the app is now in the testing phase and will only now begin closed pilots in several regional areas in the coming days, means the best-case scenario is the app being ready by Monday, 18 October.

Shadow Minister for Customer Service and Digital Yasmin Catley MP said, ‘The delay of the vaccine app will leave businesses in the firing line as our state begins to reopen from Monday, placing pressure on owners and staff to police the vaccination status of customers’.

Last Sunday, the Perrottet Government revealed authorised officers will inspect businesses to ensure businesses are upholding the public health orders and monitoring customers’ vaccination status. Those found to not be complying will face $5,000 fines, yet the most crucial tool for businesses to uphold the health orders won’t be ready.

This is just the latest failure from Minister for Customer Service and Digital Victor Dominello that once again has left businesses to pay the price. In the past 3 months the Minister oversaw the shambolic rollout of crucial COVID business support grants, which saw business waiting weeks for the money to arrive as their income dried up.

The Minister was than entrusted to oversee the rollout of authorised worker and travel permits, which was a complete disaster as workers and employers were left in the dark as to who the permits would apply to. Now we have his failure to deliver the vaccine app on time.

Yasmin Catley said: 

“The vaccine app should be ready to be rolled out on Monday, not only just entering its trial phase.

“This is just the latest instance of the Minister failing the business community across NSW.

“The past few months have exposed this Minister as a dud who has failed to provide the business community with the certainty it needs at every turn.”