It’s time to free up economy

THERE were some worrying figures about the number of unemployed people in Townsville revealed yesterday.

Official data puts the region’s jobless rate about 8 per cent, but local AEC Group senior economist Jonathan Pavetto disputes the numbers, estimating the real number is as high as 18.8 per cent.

“I don’t think we have ever seen a time in our history where so many people have been reliant on a handout from the Government and so few people have been putting money in,” he said.

The Australian Bureau of Statistics labour force figures for April estimate the number of people employed in the Townsville region fell 16,400 to 101,400 compared with the previous month.

Mr Pavetto said their modelling showed as many as 20,000 people were unemployed or had left the workforce in the Townsville region. But Mr Pavetto said 48,000 people in the Townsville region, including Hinchinbrook, Burdekin, Charters Towers and Palm Island, were being kept employed under the Government’s Jobkeeper payments. That’s 45 per cent of the workforce. He makes a good point and gives our leaders more reason to get our economy open as quickly as possible.

If we keep the economy in lockdown beyond September when Jobkeeper finishes, a lot businesses and jobs will be under threat.

Townsville is way ahead of the COVID19 curve yet the State Government refuses to allow the business community get more people back to work before the rest of the state. It doesn’t make sense.

Making regions wait to open up until southeast Queensland is COVID-19 free makes as much sense as closing a state border when people are only allowed to travel 50 or 150km.

Thankfully, Townsville has people working behind the scenes to get the economy moving as quickly as possible, all they need is the green light from the State Government.