Tourism and business leaders blast Qld decision to keep Sydney on outer

Queensland's tourism and business leaders have railed against Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young's decision to keep the state's border closed to Sydney.

On Friday, Dr Young made the long-awaited decision to open the border to everyone in NSW except those who live in 32 local government areas around the NSW capital or who have visited those areas in the previous 14 days.

Victoria will also remain closed off to Queensland.

The decision was based on remaining unlinked community transmission in both jurisdictions, Dr Young said.

After Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk flagged the decision earlier in the month, many in the tourism, airline and business sectors were hoping to see a full return of travel between the states.

Qantas, Virgin Australia and Village Roadshow Theme Park bosses all criticised the decision shortly after it was announced on Friday.

The state's peak business lobby group, Chamber of Commerce and Industry Queensland, hit out at the continued "uncertainty" of border closures, and Queensland Tourism Industry Council chief executive Daniel Gschwind said he had been "hoping for better news".

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and Health Minister Steven Miles watch as the Chief Health Officer explains her health advice about the Queensland-NSW border.

"Today's announcement on the ongoing border closure is not what many tourism regions, sectors and related businesses wanted to hear," CCIQ general manager of advocacy policy Amanda Rohan said.

"With Christmas fast approaching, there are many families and travellers wanting to confirm their holiday plans, and many businesses wanting to plan for the month ahead."

Mr Gschwind said the fact that "the main prize, namely Sydney, is out of reach" would impact not only those on the NSW side of the border who had booked trips, but Queensland businesses that would see those bookings cancelled.

"Airlines will have to cancel flights, I suspect, and airports will suffer also," he said.

Virgin Australia had been gearing up to launch more services across the border from Sydney to tourism hotspots such as Cairns and Hamilton Island, but with Sydney blockaded, that decision has been delayed again.

Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce, a critic of ongoing state border closures, labelled the decision "ridiculous".

"Sydney is the biggest city in Australia, and it probably has one of the best track records globally of managing a virus that is clearly going to be with us for a very long time," Mr Joyce said.

"Queensland may find that by the time it does open up to Sydney, people have made other plans."

The proposed November 1 date for border changes was pushed to November 3 on the advice of Queensland police, to ensure all border passes could be updated in time.

Dr Young pointed to four cases with unknown links recorded in NSW on Thursday – along with earlier information – as a key element in her decision to continue to lock out the 32 Sydney local government areas that had seen cases in the past 28 days.

With a decision on further border easing now unlikely until the end of November, Ms Rohan said the importance of easing restrictions for Queensland businesses was "even more vital", with 10 per cent still affected.

She said capacity caps on the business, events and hospitality sector were hitting their bottom line and putting their "future ability to operate at risk" if they could not tap into the peak trading season.

She added that CCIQ was not pushing for an easing of COVID-safe practices but "ways for businesses to be sustainable in the long term" as stimulus support tapers off.

Mr Gschwind agreed, saying it was important to "make more viable businesses out of what market there is".

Asked about a further easing of the restrictions still in place on Thursday, Deputy Premier Steven Miles said there was a "trade-off" with borders, and there was no intention to ease restrictions further.

- with Lucy Stone and Lydia Lynch

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