‘Stay alert to infected tourists’

HINCHINBROOK MP Nick Dametto is calling for stronger Queensland borders amid fears over an influx of illegal holiday-makers from virus-infected Victoria, placing lives and livelihoods in jeopardy.

The Katter’s Australian Party politician who spends much of his time travelling within his electorate that stretches between Cardwell and Townsville said he had “seen a number of Victorian number plates up here, and questions are being asked”.

“The stories I’ve been hearing are that we are seeing a lot of Victorian four-wheel-drives and caravans covered in red dirt so that indicates they are coming through the southwest of Queensland, on those back roads that are unmanned at certain times of the night.”

Mr Dametto said another outbreak of COVID-19 would be devastating, particularly given the surge in intrastate tourism.

“We would have thrown all that hard work that we had done in the wastepaper basket and we’d be starting again,” he said.

“I know for a fact that small businesses out there cannot possibly survive a second wave of COVID-19 coronavirus restrictions, as well as our ageing community in North Queensland.”

The Hinchinbrook Shire has one of the most elderly populations in Queensland.

Mr Dametto said that given the current resources deployed at the Queensland border, the situation was impossible to police effectively.

“Especially when you open up the NSW border, all of a sudden you’ve got to double-check every vehicle coming through that border to make sure it doesn’t have a Victorian number plate. It’s going to be an absolute nightmare.”

He said the State Government needed to take the threat much more seriously.