LNP call to speed recovery

OPPOSITION leader Deb Frecklington has written to Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to advocate for reopening Townsville.

The Premier announced last week restrictions would ease across Queensland, with them lifting faster in the “Outback”.

Despite constant calls from North Queensland doctors, business leaders and politicians, the State Government did not include Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville or Cairns in the Outback classification.

In her letter, Ms Frecklington wrote there was “no reason” the area between Wide Bay and Cairns, and the Darling Downs, could not join the lighter restrictions.

From Saturday, 20 people will be able to go a restaurant in places like Mount Isa and Hughenden, but only 10 in Townsville. This is despite Townsville having no active cases, and no new cases for more than 30 days.

“Ahead of restrictions easing this weekend across Queensland, I would urge the Palaszczuk Government to prioritise regional economic recovery,” Ms Frecklington wrote.

“Geographically, most of our state has no active cases and there is an opportunity for regional economies to be fasttracked out of lockdown.

“However, it’s up to the Palaszczuk Government to decide where and how quickly restrictions are eased.

“If you look at the Queensland Health regional breakdown yesterday, there were only 18 active cases across the state, with 12 in Brisbane, three on the Gold Coast, two in Cairns and one on the Sunshine Coast. That means there were no active cases between the Sunshine Coast and Cairns, a distance of over 1500 kilometres.”

Ms Frecklington said with social distancing and other “mitigation measures”, there was no reason restrictions could not ease.

“These regions are not covered in the Outback concessions and they are crying out for economic leadership,” she said.

On Q&A on Monday night Ms Palaszczuk said just because there were no known cases in North Queensland didn’t mean it was safe.

“We have 2000 people still in quarantine throughout Queensland,” she said.

The Townsville Bulletin understands that on Friday, there were about 50 people in quarantine in Townsville.