POSITION ON BORDER IS UNTENABLE
It’s time the Premier listened to and trusted the people on the question of safely opening Queensland’s border.
EACH morning I persist with a somewhat antiquated routine of walking to the nearest convenience store to buy daily newspapers including this fine organ.
And every day since this world-altering pandemic hit out of the blue like a blindside coward punch on a Friday night, the woman behind the store counter has greeted me with hands covered in white rubber gloves and what appears to be a smile behind a face mask.
But on Wednesday things were different. I walked to the convenience store, grabbed multiple copies of the Gold Coast Bulletin, admired its outstanding hard-hitting front page, and then looked up at the convenience store lady’s face to see her smiling back at me for the first time in two months.
Nothing covering up her face, hands free of rubber gloves.
“No mask today?” I asked, figuring she was obviously a Bulletin reader and aware that despite mass Black Lives Matter protests at the weekend there remained – at that stage – just two active cases in the entire city of 600,000-plus people.
“I think we should be right,” she said with a cheery laugh.
Her words stayed with me. I think we should be right.
Except it’s not – despite July 10 seemingly now set as the reopening date (it’s too late but we’ll get to that).
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk – like a proverbial possum caught in headlights – has been frozen on her border closure position far too long despite overwhelming opinion to the contrary. She’s also let the “more realistic” September reopening statement linger and leave everyone in a tailspin.
The convenience store lady appeared to have grasped a concept on Wednesday that Ms Palaszczuk had not: the border closure is no longer flattening the coronavirus curve, it’s just flattening the economy.
As the week progressed, the Premier looked increasingly like an island.
Her border closure position left her out of step with 86 per cent of Queenslanders according to an online poll, the Prime Minister, his second-in-charge health adviser, NZ Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters, my favourite convenience store staffer and in recent days – finally – Gold Coast tourism supremo Paul Donovan and Mayor Tom Tate.
Two weeks ago, Mr Donovan appeared alongside Queensland Tourism Minister Kate Jones at a cafe at Main Beach to front media and highlight limitless travel being made allowable within Queensland.
Unfortunately, the impact of “maroon month” has been negligible. No surprise there. Destination Gold Coast CEO Annaliese Battista was underwhelmed by limitless travel in the state – when others were frothing – saying it would do little to move the dial for the Gold Coast.
Further, Tourism and Events Queensland statistics reported in the Bulletin this week show 86 per cent of interstate visitors into the Gold Coast come from NSW and Victoria, so forget about hyped talk of opening the state borders with other COVID-safe states such as South Australia, Western
Australian, the Northern Territory, etc because they represent just 14 per cent of our visitor market from the rest of Australia.
But as of Wednesday, Mr Donovan’s position had shifted markedly. Despite his natural inclination towards being a diplomat, even he was calling on State Government to “give us a date” for a reopening, and saying the border row was leaving him “confused and frustrated”.
A day later, Mayor Tom Tate followed suit. By Thursday, he had done a complete 180. He shifted from backing the Premier’s border closure “until it is safe to reopen” stance to setting her a
D-Day of today – and then yesterday – for a reopening date.
Embattled Virgin Australia, either fed up with stagnation or champing at the bit to put on routes and save jobs or aiming to add to the pressure on Premier Palaszczuk, logged online flight capacity with up to nine flights a day from July 13.
On his Sky show The Front Page, former Bulletin editor Peter Gleeson expounded on whether or not there was anyone left in Queensland who actually supported Ms Palaszczuk’s stance.
“She hasn’t got a friend – she’s got a labrador, that’s the only one she’s got,” ‘Gleeso’ wailed.
We’d been told we needed to flatten the curve. Tick.
We’d been told we needed to buy time to boost health system capacity for a wave of virus cases and intensive care unit patients (which has yet to materialise, thankfully). Tick.
We’d been told when out and about now to record where we go, give our details when we arrive, maintain strict personal hygiene. There are more hand sanitiser stations around this city now than there are bus and tram stops. Tick, tick, tick.
Everyone gets it. Now it is time to not just listen to the people but trust them to do the correct thing.
It’s not just border walls that need to come down, but unprecedented restrictions on business, particularly the city’s world-famous hospitality and tourism activity offering.
Because the longer it is left, the worse the impact is going to be on businesses, jobs, struggling families, and mental health which we are already starting to see.
July 10? It’s a whole month away. And still too late.
Queensland Airports Ltd CEO Chris Mills this week said as far as the chilly Victorians’ school holidays window of June 27-July 12 is concerned, the horse has all but bolted. NSW is set for July 6 to July 17.
Despite Prime Minister Scott Morrison all but announcing July 10 for Ms Palaszczuk yesterday, she can one up that and bring it forward when she does it officially.
Ms Palaszczuk, the message is very clear: open the border even earlier – I think we should be right.