MAYOR SEES THE LIGHT
MAYOR Tom Tate’s Saturday deadline for the Premier to provide a firm date for reopening the border is music to the ears of a city staring at economic ruin.
Annastacia Palaszczuk has been able to count on Cr Tate so far to back her publicly in the stand she took – justifiably in the early days – in shutting the borders and introducing social distancing and lockdowns to control the COVID-19 pandemic.
But the fact 30,000 were able to pack Brisbane’s CBD for the Black Lives Matter rally at the weekend has reinforced just how farcical the COVID-19 restrictions have become — and forced the Mayor’s hand. The city has done the right thing throughout yet is being penalised by a refusal to speed up the border opening, which is critical to the tourism economy’s survival. Meanwhile the Premier looked the other way as a huge crowd ignored pleas to maintain social distancing.
As the Bulletin has said many times, with the so-called “curve” having flat-lined long ago, Queensland has to unlock the shackles so the economy starts functioning properly again. Tourism is our city’s lifeblood, but at the moment it is frozen in the veins. We have to get our city’s heart pumping again and despite Ms Palaszczuk’s best intentions in implementing a slowlydoes-it lifting of restrictions, the time to open the border is right now.
We should also be joining with New Zealand, where Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters are red-hot keen to have the “travel bubble” operating between our countries.
But as Mr Peters lamented yesterday: “We’ve run into the roadblock of federalism, it seems.” He means, in part, Queensland. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison is frustrated by the states digging their heels in and ignoring his urging and Commonwealth health advice to open the borders so the economy gets up off the mat. Jobs depend on it and, as we have warned several times, so too does the mental health of the workforce.
Despite the Premier’s assertion yesterday she is on the same page as the PM and things could happen in July, she remains a brake on recovery. Tourism providers, accommodation houses, airlines, small businesses, the unemployed and families need to know there is hope. This is not about state rights, it is about survival.