Among dozens of questionable requests on the site seen by NCA NewsWire, was a user asking for someone to transport a fish tank from Liverpool, a high-risk Local Government Area, to Sydney’s northern beaches.People in high-risk LGAs such as Liverpool and Campbelltown are not allowed to travel more than 5km from their home and can only leave their homes for a limited number of reasons including exercise and grocery shopping.Similar jobs found on Airtasker include a user offering $100 “to buff out the scratches on my fish tank” at Haymarket in inner Sydney.Another person requested two cats she was adopting in Bathurst be picked up and brought to Sydney for $250, with instructions that “the current owner of the cats has agreed to meet at Bathurst KFC and the cats will need to be dropped off (to Sydney).”NSW residents are not allowed to enter greater Sydney without a reasonable excuse under current restrictions.On Thursday, NSW Police Deputy Commissioner Mal Lanyon warned those tasks would likely breach NSW public health orders.Deputy commissioner Lanyon urged the state’s residents to use “common sense” when requesting a job be performed through Airtasker.“I‘m concerned … it’s really about making sure people who are bidding for (and posting) those jobs understand the public health orders,” he said on 2GB’s Ben Fordham show.“I‘m sure there are tasks on there that fit the reasonable excuse but that type of act (transporting a fish tank) would not fit that reasonable excuse to be away from their homes.“We’re asking people to apply common sense, this is not the time to do those jobs.”Haircuts are also a popular request within Airtasker, with one user requesting “a hair cut done for an adult man with chemical hair straightening, along with haircut 2 teenage boys”.One northern beaches resident, desperate to keep their locks from overgrowing in lockdown, even offered to enter a singles bubble with a hairdresser so he could get a “simple 1.5 on top and skin fade on the sides” without breaching the health direction. Another Airtasker user requested an artist create a mural in their home gym.There is no suggestion of any wrongdoing by these Airtasker users, however a NSW Police spokesperson did confirm to NCA NewsWire that jobs such as haircuts and the transportation of fish tanks and cats did not fall under reasonable excuses to leave the home, have a visitor, or enter greater Sydney.
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