Here’s something unexpected: Dymocks hires security after jump in assaults on staff over COVID rules. 

A popular bookshop in Melbourne’s CBD has been forced to hire security guards to guard its main entrance after employees were attacked by customers refusing to follow Victoria’s COVID-19 rules, with one worker being pushed down an escalator.

Pretty gruesome story, but perhaps a lesson here about what really matters to those who have been kept in lockdown. Why are liquor stores open to the public generally  but not book stores? You can’t even go to the library unless you are vaxxed. As one of the co-owners of Dymocks is quoted as saying:

There was a big divide between essential services and non-essential retail when it came to enforcing the restrictions, with authorities putting less of an onus on essential businesses to follow the rules.

“We are booksellers, we are not security guards. Why are we made to be bouncers?” Mrs Traverso said.

“It’s one week into this mandate. People are just not able to cope with it. They are just sick of it. We are nearing 92 per cent fully vaccinated. Enough is enough. Just give up those stupid mandates.”

And speaking of bouncers.

Of course, the supposed rebound in the economy does not quite tell the story since business costs to monitor who comes in and who does not may look like an increase in economic activity to a statistician but it’s not in any way an improvement in our living standards.