SIR FRANK TAKES AIM

TOURISM ICON’S WARNING:

THE father of Queensland tourism has issued an impassioned warning about interstate border closures – and he lays blame directly at the feet of one senior bureaucrat.

Sir Frank Moore, who in 1978 established the organisation that became Tourism and Events Queensland, has often found himself front and centre of market peaks, crashes, rallies and collapses during his 90 years on earth.

He has never seen anything quite like this.

The respected industry veteran told the Cairns Post the decision to keep Queensland’s borders shut to interstate travel until September would obliterate businesses that were already barely clinging to their livelihoods.

He said the state’s chief medical officer, Dr Jeannette Young, had a lot to answer for.

“The present situation is man-made,” Sir Frank said.

“This is one person calling the shots.

“In the meantime, the jobs of thousands of bloody people and the future of people’s small businesses are under threat.

“God almighty, it’s their life, it’s their only assets in life, and they’re just going to be wiped out completely.”

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has repeated her intention to follow Dr Young’s expert advice to the hilt without being swayed by external pressures.

A spokesman for her office reiterated the message yesterday.

“The Border Restrictions Direction – which allows entry into Queensland for work or other essential travel – has helped to keep community transmissions much lower than in other states, and enabled many other restrictions to be eased earlier than expected,” she said.

“The chief health officer has said that a decision about easing the border restrictions cannot yet be made with certainty because community transmission of COVID-19 is still much more of an issue in New South Wales and Victoria than in Queensland.”

Sir Frank urged the Premier to listen to health leaders in other states and at a federal level who said interstate travel could be carefully and safely managed by June or July.

“It’s just dreadful what is happening,” he said.

“Small business around the place will be extinct.”

Speaking on Radio National yesterday, Dr Young said she still wanted Victoria and NSW to record two incubation periods (28 days in total) with no local transmission before opening interstate travel.

That did not necessarily mean zero cases – just zero cases where the disease had been passed on without its source being known.

Sir Frank said Cairns and the Far North had an excellent long-term tourism future but immediate stresses threatened to collect far too many scalps along the way.

“I just can’t understand what this premier’s on about,” he said. “It just seems that there’s no facts to go on as to why she’s doing what she’s doing.

“She says it’s because of the medical situation but that’s ridiculous when you look at what the real facts are.

“I almost get the impression that her medical adviser has got her under her control.

“The target is very small – it’s just one person who seems to have the Premier in her hands.”

Sir Frank said longer-term national border closures could also jeopardise the industry.

“The problem we’ve all got is what is going to happen in the next three to four years,” he said.

“I think we’re damaging our place in the marketplace for the future.

“People will go somewhere else instead and break their relationship with us.

“In any business, you have to build a relationship with your customers.”

THE TARGET IS VERY SMALL — IT’S JUST ONE PERSON WHO SEEMS TO HAVE THE PREMIER IN HER HANDS SIR FRANK MOORE