Poll tests out temps

Queenslanders still flighty

TEMPERATURE checks at airports are more important to Queenslanders keen to fly than waiting on a COVID-19 vaccine, News Corp’s Your Say 2020 sentiment survey has revealed.

Three-quarters of respondents to the survey said temperature checks before and after flights would encourage them to fly again, ahead of 70.5 per cent for a COVID-19 vaccine.

Nearly two-thirds said making masks mandatory inside airports would also encourage them to fly. But 31.9 per cent said nothing would make them comfortable to fly or travel any time soon.

Almost half — 48.4 per cent — were unsatisfied with the government and health authority leadership during the pandemic, 40.1 per cent were happy with it and 11.5 per cent were neither.

Far North Queensland and Gold Coast residents reported more cuts to hours and job losses since the pandemic, but across the state, 74.2 per cent of respondents said it had made no difference to their employment.

All regions said the pandemic had had a negative impact on family life, felt most on the Gold Coast, then the Far

North and north Queensland.

Queensland Tourism Industry Council boss Daniel Gschwind said the community needed to develop ways to live with COVID-19.

“We will have to face the reality that some infections will be around possibly for quite a long time and it’ll have to be managed in a safe way,” he said.

In response to respondents expressing their dissatisfaction with government leadership during the pandemic, a state government spokesman said: “Queensland’s acknowledged success in dealing with the pandemic means being able to go about our daily lives without the lockdowns and restrictions in other places.”