Roberts One Real Estate to test out vaccinated economy

Daniel Roberts from Roberts One Real Estate said his business was selected by the state government to take part in the trials, which start today and are designed to test the processes for confirming vaccination status in an 'open' economy.

Roberts One Real Estate will be joined in the trial with the Darlings of Beauty salon and Warrnambool Art Gallery.

A race meeting at Warrnambool Racing Club on Thursday will also be used to test higher patron limits at larger, open air events.

Venues participating in the trial will open to fully vaccinated patrons and will be provided support by the state government to put in place the processes required to verify the vaccination status of patrons visiting the venue.

Mr Roberts said he did not apply to participate in the trial but was happy to help the community move forward and "try and get Warrnambool reopened".

He said that under the trial, up to 30 double vaccinated people could attend an inspection at one time through a sale or rental property, and 100 outdoors during an auction.

But Mr Roberts said he had also worked with the state government to ensure unvaccinated or single-dosed people could also attend inspections.

He said those people would attend personal one-one-one inspections, with masks, QR check in and ID checks still required.

"At the end of the day, you can't exclude someone from potentially putting a roof over their head," he said.

"We worked hard to allow this to happen and really, if we weren't part of that trial it might not have gone ahead. That's something we really want to make clear as it is something that we put forward to help the community.

"We agreed to this trial to have some input, it's not supposed to be hateful."

Mr Roberts said the trial was about moving forward and opening up the state in a "COVID-safe" way.

"We, like every other industry, want to open back up and trade like normal. There wouldn't be a business that hasn't had some sort of hurdle to jump during this pandemic and at the end of the day, we all want to be back to trading, with the safety of our clients, community and staff our number one priority," he said.

"Also we do not make the rules - we are just abiding by them as we always have done throughout this pandemic."

Mr Roberts said with the announcement of the trials on Sunday, people had already taken to social media to abuse and make assumptions about his business.

"We just ask people to be kind as we're all in this together," he said.

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