Outdoor dining areas transformed for smokers

Eateries in Melbourne’s east are transforming outdoor dining areas into smoking safe spaces after new laws banning cigarettes around food came into effect in August 2017.

The changes have been spotted at venues in Dandenong and Eaton Mall in Oakleigh

The changes are in effect allowing the venues to dodge the new law which bans smoking in outdoor dining areas while food is served.

Victoria’s new smoking law allows cafes to adopt non-smoking policy during lunch and dinner.

It also requires them to display no smoking signage in any dining area. It creates four-metre buffer zones or 2.1 metre blinds to stop smoke drifting from designated smoking areas to eating areas and requires eateries to only offer snacks and drinks in outdoor areas where smokers are present.

Non-smoking customers and public figures are outraged by these changes, prompting calls for the new law to be tightened.

City of Monash councillor Geoff Lake said the issue was critical in Oakleigh.

Some traders had a lack of space which meant they could not legally convert their outdoor areas into smoking spaces.

“There are five or six traders in the mall who have changed their serving practices since the new laws came into effect,’ Cr Lake told the Herald Sun.

“It is an unfair advantage and the smoke impacts on the rest of the mall.”

He said his council was looking at introducing new local laws to deal with the issue. So far, it had received little assistance from the state government. 

He said the Victorian government needed to “get back to the drafting table and make the laws they introduced on August 1 more effective”.

Dandenong Councillor Matthew Kirwan concurred adding “there is significant concerns about this loophole”.

“The way the legislation was written in Victoria, they have just prohibited outdoor dining areas and turned them into smoking areas,’’ Cr Kirwan told the Herald Sun.

Leon Gettler - 23 April 2018