Nicola Waldren has started, I assume, as she means to go on, with a shot across the bow at the Government.

She is the new Restaurant Association head - her appeal is the one you thought it might be. She wants the Government to listen.

She relitigates Covid. Lockdowns and slow border openings. The rates, the insurance, domestic consumer sentiment.

She wants whoever wins the election to listen. I have sympathy for her.

Good news: 1) the lockdown era is over.

2) The insurance “cost plus” rating era isn't over sadly, but things like rate caps may help.

And 3) as for consumer sentiment, a couple of things. Firstly, sentiment is fine. Not right now, but pre-Iran we were off to the races, and we will be off to the races again.

Iran was not our fault, was not the Government's fault, it was Trump’s, and all we can do is suck it up.

But those Q1 GDP numbers, along with their associated previous quarter revisions, showed this country was growing nicely. Westpac updated their data last week – they have increased growth for the rest of the year.

So that should take care of that.

But can I, as a restaurant goer, make an appeal to the Association, and indeed the industry?

This is a two-way street. There is too much of the industry that, to put it bluntly, are useless.

We are over hospo’d – every immigrant and their mum opens a takeaway or café or restaurant. They may or may not know what they are doing.

Too many employ imbeciles who are not into service. Too many have nonsense hours. Too many offer inferior products at first class prices.

We have an industry of two parts: well established, successful operators who get it, deliver it, and prosper as a result, and we have fly-by-nighters in a boom bust cycle going nowhere.

The reason liquidations are so high in hospo is because most of them never stood a chance, because they didn’t deserve to.

Ask for all the government help you want, but help yourself first.

Single out your rock stars and tell the others to replicate, or at least have a good crack at replication. Want for more, aim higher, work harder, be more determined.

We have enough stars to know it's possible – the precedent is already there.

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