Virus app has key role
OVER past weeks, our community has made significant sacrifice to support efforts to reduce the spread of COVID-19 across North Queensland.
I thank each and every person for the role they have played in Townsville being COVID-19 free for over three weeks now.
It is extremely disappointing to see Mayor Jenny Hill refuse to do her part in supporting these efforts.
To quote Dr Brett Segal (TB, 1/5), her position is a slap in the face to our essential workers and truly does beggar belief.
The Mayor has been openly hostile and unhelpful in her commentary around the COVIDSAFE app to the detriment of our entire region.
Whether you like the semantics around the app’s data storage or you don’t, downloading COVIDSAFE has an important role to play in Townsville returning to some semblance of normality.
On its web page, Townsville City Council encourages locals to download various apps.
The data storage supporting the information garnered through those apps would undoubtedly come under the same legislative protections as the COVIDSAFE app.
I note Mayor Hill also heavily utilises her official Facebook site despite it being owned by a global media company that is constantly data harvesting.
As our region faces enormous social and economic challenges in the wake of COVID-19, this is not the time for petty politics that are hypocritical at best.
Our community has led the way with its collaborative approach, and it is time for our Mayor to do the same in the interests of our region, state and the nation more broadly.
In that vein, I would also ask Mayor Hill to reconsider her refusal in supporting regional management zones that would allow centres like Townsville, who have low to no community transmission, the ability to begin the transition back to some degree of normality.
The people, businesses and economy of North Queensland can’t afford to have politics put before people for another day. PHILLIP THOMPSON,
Member for Herbert.