Convoy to Canberra protesters have targeted King O'Malley's with one-star reviews on Google, after their refusal to wear masks at the Civic pub prompted the business to close early on Saturday.
Canberrans have responded by rallying behind the iconic business, showing their support with glowing five-star reviews commending its decision to protect staff and patrons by closing early.
King O'Malley's closed at 6.30pm on Saturday - a night it would usually open until midnight or later - after a group of convoy protesters entered without masks.
Protesters have gathered in Canberra over the last week, first settling in the parliamentary zone with camps and then protesting for disparate causes including an end to vaccination mandates and overthrowing the government.
Pub managing director Peter Barclay said staff were uncomfortable serving the unmasked convoy members after they entered, and the business decided to close early to protect staff and patrons from potential COVID infection.
"We wanted to make sure that staff were safe and make sure we were obeying the law," he said.
"We just don't want to put staff or patrons in a position where they might be exposed to coronavirus.
"The main thing is our staff didn't feel comfortable being there and they were at risk, which was the bottom line."
Mask wearing is mandatory at hospitality venues in the ACT, except when seated or eating and drinking, and businesses are expected to ensure patrons comply with the requirement.
We just need to remember that businesses are at risk and anything that puts other patrons and staff at risk is something they've worked incredibly hard to avoid.
Canberra Business Chamber chief executive Graham Catt
Mr Barclay said a small minority of the convoy members - about a dozen - were not wearing masks.
"The majority of people were doing the right thing," he said.
The business refused service to the unmasked convoy members when they approached the bar, and asked them to leave.
Mr Barclay said he didn't want to put police or security guards trying to enforce the mask mandate in danger, and decided to stop the situation from escalating by closing.
"It was early in the evening. If it was already difficult then, what could it potentially be like by 10, 11 or 12 o'clock?," he said on Sunday.
"They were just saying they had exemptions. It's very very difficult in a bar situation if they don't have written exemptions to show you, how do you know if they have one or not?"
In one negative review written later, a protester said they had a "legal constitutional exemption" from mask wearing.
Mr Barclay said it was an intimidating situation for a business to have young staff, most of whom are university students, feeling unsafe.
ACT Policing said at 4.30pm Saturday it responded to a request for assistance from King O'Malley's, where some patrons were refusing to comply with mask-wearing requirements.
The patrons left the venue about 4.55pm, shortly after a small number of officers arrived. After the pub decided to close, it made a further request for assistance to ensure patrons left the premises after some refused, ACT Policing said. Officers attended and the venue was cleared by 7pm.
'Courage and conviction'
Convoy members responded by leaving King O'Malley's one-star reviews on Google in a bid to drag down the business' ratings on the popular search engine. They accused the business of discrimination and being "un-Australian".
Canberrans responded by inundating Google with 50 positive, five-star reviews for the pub.
"Keeping your community safe in the face of belligerence and aggression isn't easy, good on you," one said.
Another reviewer wrote: "An absolute Canberra institution, great food, great music, friendly staff. And most importantly, management with the courage and conviction to stand up for themselves and the wellbeing of all Canberrans. Mad respect. Never change King O's!"
One patron said: "Great pub! Keep your heads up team, don't worry about these review bombers, they do not represent your true patrons."
King O'Malley's will remain closed on Sunday to "give everyone some time to cool off" after the early closure, Mr Barclay said.
"We're giving staff an opportunity to go and have a bit of fun, enjoy the sunshine in Canberra."
Mr Barclay said the positive reviews showed the strength of the Canberra community.
"We think Canberra has a wonderful community, we've been part of it for many years, we've been there for the ups and downs Canberra has had," he said.
"We all rally around and support each other in times of need. That's the really great thing about this city, everyone just rallies around and bands together."
A Queanbeyan towing business was forced to shut down its website and remove its phone number from the internet last week after being targeted by Canberra's anti-vaccination mandate and sovereign citizen protesters.
The company was inundated with negative reviews and calls after it towed the group's cars from outside the National Library of Australia on Friday morning.
A north Canberra supermarket, which asked not to be identified, reportedly encountered verbal abuse from protesters between 2pm and 8pm on Saturday.
One of the adult workers, who asked to be anonymous, said some of the protest members verbally abused the store's under-18 staff after being asked to wear masks and follow other ACT Health directions.
The worker said most of the protesters were aggressive and refused to put on masks despite staff offering to give them some.
The biggest concern was the safety and welfare of the supermarket's staff between 15-17 years old, the worker said.
"They were petrified, but they're pretty smart young people. They know that they shouldn't tolerate abuse."
'Businesses are at risk'
Canberra Business Chamber chief executive Graham Catt said he had not had any direct feedback about the protesters impacting local businesses, but had heard about the potential impact on the Farmers Market at Epic, where some protesters are camped, as well as disruption to traffic.
"We just need to remember that businesses are at risk and anything that puts other patrons and staff at risk is something they've worked incredibly hard to avoid," Mr Catt said.
"They've worked hard to create safe environments and so anything that takes them backwards and adds to that risk is going to be challenging.
"We also need to keep in mind the general business environment at the moment. Businesses, especially hospitality venues and other venues, are already dealing with a whole range of issues [from COVID], including staff quarantine and isolation."
Revenues were down in January, including some facing drops of more than 20 per cent in the face of surging Omicron cases.
"It's understandable they need to be doing everything they can to avoid more risks," Mr Catt said.
"They've just worked so hard trying to keep patrons safe, venues safe and staff safe so they can actually be viable. That has just been the focus of people for the past two years. We need to keep that in mind."
Capital Region Farmers Market manager Sarah Power said it worked hard with EPIC and stallholders, management and the volunteer team to make sure the market was able to operate as usual.
"The concern was the large number of people nearby and how that would affect the COVID measures in place and how hard we worked to make the community safer," she said.
"We certainly had concerns. As for the market yesterday, there were no serious issues. It was very calm, very peaceful.
"We've hopefully provided a safe environment for our customers throughout the morning.
"In terms of COVID rules generally, at this stage, our plan is the same as the past few months in terms of following ACT Health directions and continuing with those. Our Canberra community has been fantastic with assisting us."
