A Tāmaki Makaurau businessman is gathering support for a no-vax, no-entry policy at bars, cafés and restaurants.
Hospitality venues are considering asking for proof of Covid-19 vaccination status before entry. (File photo). Photo: 123rf
Sam Ansley, the owner of Shaky Isles Coffee and the bars Everybody's and Roxy, plans to request proof of a Covid-19 vaccination card upon entry at his businesses in a month's time.
He told RNZ he had talked the idea over with around 30 other Auckland hospitality operators, mostly from larger venues in the city, and about 75 percent were keen to do the same.
Ansley expected to lose customers when lockdown lifts, but also gain others who want to feel safer.
Sam Ansley Photo: Supplied
"Every choice someone makes has a negative or a positive consequence. And if you choose to not get vaccinated, then potentially what you're going to do is reduce the number of options you've got to have a really damn good time."
He hopes the door checks will help boost vaccination rates and reduce "incredibly damaging lockdowns".
"We are an industry that is used to checking people at entrances. We are an industry that is able to check for IDs and we are an industry now that has to have Covid-app tracing scans at our entrances.
"We are an industry that can refuse entry to people if they are intoxicated, or if they're underage, or not dressed in quite the right way. We are an industry that is used to having restrictions placed on people's ability to get in."
Ansley also hoped the government will take note.
"If we can help and get our voices heard around that government table, which I think business really struggles with at the moment, then that's a good thing too."
Ansley began to settle on the policy two weeks ago, when he felt the vaccination rollout was hitting "a tipping point".
"It doesn't benefit anti-vaxxers, and you know what? I'm kind of okay with that," he said.
"We can ideally top the world with vaccinations, that should be our objective."