Bing Crosby sang of being home by Christmas. In a twist on Bing’s croon, our governments are now hoping Australians can leave their homes by Christmas.
With 42% of eligible Australians now fully vaccinated, we are seeing welcome plans begin to emerge to ensure more freedoms are restored over the coming months.
NSW has led the charge with the announcement of their ‘roadmap to freedom’ which will enable the fully vaccinated to be granted additional rights once the state reaches 70% double-dose vaccination. Other jurisdictions have flagged they will also adopt this model of giving more rights for those with double jab status as we reach the National Plan threshold of 80%.
The business community is also grappling with how it will manage the bifurcated world of the vaccinated and the unvaccinated which is soon to be upon us.
Many members are engaging with their own staff to understand how comfortable people are at the prospect of working alongside the unvaccinated and what the implications of this are. As a property industry, we must also consider vaccination issues as they relate to third party building services staff and other occupants of our assets.
These are vexed issues which policy makers seem to be happy to leave squarely on the heads of business leaders, made all the more difficult because the future will not be a COVID-zero one (even in parts of Australia now free of the delta strain).
The Property Council has received requests for a staff survey that companies can use to take a sounding of their organisation. We have developed this model survey which can be adapted for your purposes.
Australia is on the cusp of a big and welcome transition, with vaccines being the enabler of this shift. It’s a transition that can’t come soon enough for most.