Government must open up the North

NORTH Queensland tourism businesses have run out of patience and are demanding Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk open up the North.

The call comes after revelations the economy is losing more than $90 million each week and that more than 20,000 extra North Queenslanders now find themselves out of work amid the COVID-19 lockdown.

Townsville Enterprise has joined with the tourism offices representing the Cairns, Whitsundays, Mackay and Outback regions, urging the premier to include the North in the existing Outback travel bubble now.

The current road map in place restricts June travel to only 250km, which locks Townsville residents out of visiting Mackay and Cairns and vice versa.

Yet in Brisbane residents can already travel to the Gold andSunshine Coasts.

Tourism operators say it is unfair and want the 250km range lifted.

They say the vast distances and lack of population, compared with the south east, means North Queensland needs to be treated differently.

It’s hard to disagree, especially when Townsville has been COVID-19free for many, many weeks.

Most of our state MPS agree, calling for special treatment, except for our three Labor politicians.

They are toeing the party line, backing the premier and issuing joint statements on the move.

Don’t Townsville’s Labor state representatives have minds of their own?

Are they going to stand up for North Queensland and demand special treatment?

Let’s hope this is going on behind closed doors.