HOLD THAT LINE PREMIER

THE trepidation of the Gold Coast business community right now at the very real perceived threat of another crippling border closure is understandable.

The rhetoric from Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has many on tenterhooks at the prospect. She will not hesitate to act swiftly, she has said as she casts an eye south to climbing numbers of cases interstate.

Ominously, she said on Monday “anything can happen anytime” and warned Queenslanders if they wanted to enjoy ongoing eased restrictions that meant guarding against complacency.

Coronavirus case numbers continue to climb by hundreds each day in Victoria and contact tracing fails to keep up whilst the numbers in NSW inch upwards at a much slower rate and with more control of contact tracing and containment of its lower load. Nevertheless, the prospect of being shut off again is there. The numbers spoke for themselves last time the Queensland borders were shut – it resulted in, according to Federal data, the economy shrinking by $147 million and 1000 jobs a week.

The Gold Coast Central Chamber of Commerce boss Martin Hall is firmly on the side of “learning to live with it”.

The argument is simple: a vaccine is who knows how long away, our health system is as ready as it will ever be for any outbreaks, our contact tracing systems are as prepared as they can be to jump on any outbreaks to help containment. For the sake of our economy, leaders must not be spooked into jumping at the first sign of a threat.

Queensland has done remarkably well given the state of our more densely populated southern neighbours.

But right now the border – whilst shut to Victorians and some 600,000 Sydneysiders in hot spots it is still crucial it remains open to help the recovery fightback.

As time-consuming, costly and downright annoying as the border patrols are for some, it being open is crucial and credit must go to the hard and very important work of those who are manning it – and protecting both residents and the economy.