Police caution against the use of Airtasker for unlawful jobs during lockdown
A selection of unusual services have been requested on the outsourcing platform Airtasker during the NSW lockdown.
Dozens of questionable requests have been spotted, including transporting adopted cats, cleaning fish tanks and installing wine fridges.
Some of these requests have come out of the Sydney suburbs of Liverpool, which is one of the city’s high-risk Local Government Areas (LGA).
Residents of high-risk LGAs 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 essential shopping.
While most unusual requests were confined to the Sydney area, one 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 Police Deputy Commissioner Mal Lanyon has warned users of the site that a lot of these tasks are in breach of 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,” he said.
Tim Fung, co-founder and CEO of Airtasker said in a statement, “The safety of the Airtasker community is a top priority and we’re taking important measures to ensure all Taskers and customers are aware of their local restrictions before posting or accepting a task.“
Image credit: Airtasker