IT’S A START, KEEP GOING

IT’S one of the moments the Gold Coast has been waiting for.

The Glitter Strip and most of Northern NSW will be reunited once again from October 1, thanks to the Queensland Government finally bursting the border bubble.

Now our locals can venture further into their backyard, as far south as Byron, Ballina, Lismore, Richmond Valley and Glenn Innes, meaning an estimated 150,000-plus potential extra drive market visitors to the ailing tourism capital of Australia.

That’s not to mention the no doubt well-received convenience this will provide for many impacted for months by being unable to cross easily from one side to the other due to being just on the outside of the existing bubble.

While we may be two states, we are one region.

For weeks our businesses, politicians and local health leaders have pushed for further access into our southern neighbours to keep their businesses alive.

For our construction industry the news means they have access to millions of dollars in projects that have had to be on hold.

For our tourism leaders the news is the first ray of light they have seen in the last eight months, to echo the sentiment of Destination Gold Coast chairman Paul Donovan.

For our families, it means many can finally be reunited once again.

The decision is a credit to the effort of Queenslanders and how hard they have worked to keep the pandemic at bay.

Finally we have a much-needed shot in the arm, and proof that we can go further.

It is also a glimmer of hope that one day soon the state will further open its borders to other regions and even countries.

Top of the agenda should be a Queensland-Gold Coast-New Zealand border bubble. In this day and age of technological advance, fastidious contact tracing, the COVID-19 app and the wideranging awareness now of the protocols around social distancing, this should be achievable. A six-month timeframe is too faraway. Across Europe now, hotspots and clear zones available for travel are regularly updated via an almost traffic-light type system encouraging freedom of movement for work and holidaymakers.

If they can figure that out over there, surely NZ and Australia can do something similar and not need another 180 days to do so as has been forecast.

The benefits are well worth having this top of the agenda between the respective governments and politicians.

Kiwis have always been a major source of visitors for the Gold Coast and were only surpassed in recent years by a rampantly surging China.

Trans-tasman flights are as much in the Gold Coast’s interest as they are in New Zealand’s interest – think of decimated fellow tourism capital Queenstown.

It has been intimated many times over but the way out of the pandemic and path towards recovery will be strict adherence to good hygiene and social distancing but a nimble approach to opening up and other considerations. For example, embracing a more freewheeling approach to licensing in the city entertainment precincts — after all, that is what they are there for, for people to have fun.