Hawkesbury Council “encourages” you to wear a mask in its buildings

If you visit the Council’s Administration Building, libraries, the Visitor Information Centre, Hawkesbury Regional Art Gallery, Hawkesbury Regional Museum, Hawkesbury Companion Animal Shelter and any other council buildings, they would like you to wear a mask.

That’s the word from the council who are “encouraging visitors over the age of 12 to wear a mask when using indoor council facilities”.

The government’s Public Health Order relating to Covid and mask-wearing – where not wearing a mask can lead to a $200 fine – doesn’t specifically mention local government buildings – at least it doesn’t appear to so far – though it does cover shops, entertainment venues including cinemas, places of worship, hairdressers and beauty salons, and entertainment venues.

A council spokesperson said on Tuesday: “Please consider others in our community when using community spaces and limit your time so that everyone can have an opportunity for access.

“To help protect our community please practice social distancing, with a distance of 1.5 metres between yourself and others; practice good hygiene guidelines, including correct hand-washing of 20 seconds; stay home if you are sick and do not expose others to illness.”

We’ve asked what will happen if you choose not to wear a mask when you enter a council building, and we should be able to give you an answer on that tomorrow when council come back to us, but at the moment it certainly seems like a grey area.