THIS IS BORDERING ON THE RIDICULOUS
Rules around who can travel where in Australia, when they can do it, and who they can and can’t mingle with is right out of a Monty Python sketch, and we call bulls--t
And why is it that people from greater Sydney can go to parts of, say, northern NSW, and mingle with people who are allowed into Queensland
THE world doesn’t make much sense at the moment.
No I’m not talking about the US election result. That just doesn’t make sense to Donald Trump.
I’m talking about the arbitrary and very inconsistent, nonsensical, unclear, and contradictory reasoning for opening or closing borders which differ markedly depending on which state you are in.
Or as Village Roadshow Theme Parks chief operating officer Bikash Randhawa aptly summed things up in Queensland to media last week when it was revealed the border would not reopen to greater Sydney: “This situation is f--king bulls--t.”
It’s one of the more succinct critiques of the handling of the pandemic. He is right.
This country is not unified in its fight against coronavirus. It is divided. And as the cliche goes: United we stand, divided we fall.
There is a National Cabinet. But there is no national buy-in or uniformity to decision making.
Queensland is closed to greater Sydney. It is closed to Victoria. Greater Sydney is opening to Victoria on November 23.
Queensland’s border blocks to both will be reviewed – go on, say it with me – at the end of the month. That’s threeand-a-half weeks away. And no one has any idea what, if anything, will change. Good luck planning staffing, taking bookings, predicting bookings, organising flight schedules and stocking up inventories for the festive season holiday period. From a tourism and economic perspective, this is a disaster for the visitor-reliant Gold Coast.
And yes, I get the need for caution from the Chief Health Officer. One only has to look at the caseload overseas and the impact coronavirus is having in some countries to realise what a catastrophic impact an uncontrolled outbreak would have over here. But riddle me this. Why is it that people outside of greater Sydney, can drive to the airport in Sydney, mingle with greater Sydney people who might, say, make them a coffee and then fly into Queensland, and that’s ok? But if you are from greater Sydney, it’s not.
And why is it that people from greater Sydney can go to parts of, say, northern NSW, and mingle with people there – including, yes, Queenslanders – who are allowed to freely cross into Queensland? But those people from greater Sydney who they have been mingling with can not – unless they pay for two weeks in quarantine. Huh?
These anomalies are not just taxing the minds of Gold Coast aviation industry and tourism industry bosses, they actually do not understand it anymore. Probably because it does not make sense.
So without each state signing up to a national framework or set of clear rules and thresholds for reopening borders to each other and what constitutes a hotspot, the Australian and particularly Gold Coast economy is doomed to falter – and based on restrictions and border blocks that people are finding hard to fathom.
The fury of city leaders last week at the block to greater Sydney was understandable. A potential reopening had been forecast and many operators, including accommodation giant Accor, had been preparing and staffing on that basis.
One of the most frustrating parts for city operators, the airport and tourism bosses is the rigid adherence by Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to an end of month review of the situation. Why is it not more frequent? Surely the pandemic, and various pockets of community transmission and caseloads are more fluid and fastmoving than everyone having to wait a month – 31 entire days – before a potential change in restrictions internally and at the border.
That, to borrow Mr
Randhawa’s phrase, also seems like “f--king bulls--t”.
But the election win by the Palaszczuk Government signals more of the same laboured approach.
Worse, her apparent parochial bent appears to have gone into overdrive.
NSW counterpart Gladys Berejiklian claims when she texted a congratulations to Ms Palaszczuk for her election win along with a request to talk about the border situation, it took three days to get a reply and only then did it come after the first State of Origin clash when NSW went down.
Ms Palaszczuk simply texted in gloating fashion “Queenslander”.
She is yet to deny it and it is unlikely Ms Berejiklian would make something like that up.
“I’m worried about jobs and people not seeing their families and she just rubbed in that Queensland won the game, that’s fine,” Ms Berejiklian said.
Ms Berejiklian added she didn’t know whether to be “shocked or amused”.
I can think of another way to describe it: take it away Bikash Randhawa.