Winning was easy for Palaszczuk - but now there is nowhere to hide

We live in strange times indeed. I never thought in my wildest nightmares that because I live in Balmain, in Sydney's inner west, I would be banned by a Queensland Labor government from going home to see my extended family and to cheer for the Maroons in an NRL State of Origin game.

The re-election of the Palaszczuk government at Saturday’s election proves the Premier’s hard line on border closures was a clever political tactic which worked effectively for a majority of Queenslanders. Annastacia Palaszczuk now goes down in Labor history as the first female leader to win three elections. She has become a Labor legend and for that she deserves respect and congratulations.

Annastacia Palaszczuk celebrates winning a third term as Queensland Premier on Saturday night. Credit: Getty Images

But winning the state election was the easy part. Now comes the long painful road to economic recovery following the havoc wreaked by COVID-19. The next four years are going to be tough for the new government and playing the old political games of border closures will not create one job. Now there is nowhere to hide.

Rebuilding the devastated tourism industry, reducing the state’s high unemployment and managing the inevitable spot outbreaks of coronavirus head the government’s challenges, along with the timing of the full opening of the Queensland border.

Too often my Sydney and Melbourne colleagues struggle with Queensland parochialism, forgetting that, because the States of Queensland and Western Australia are geographically enormous, the political attitudes there can be very different from those in southern and eastern Australia. When tourists arrive in Cairns they are often stunned to find that from Cairns to where Queensland touches the Papua New Guinea border, there is enough room to fit in the whole state of Victoria.

Growing up in Atherton, in Far North Queensland, I was very familiar with the popular saying of "bloody southerners, what would they know?” The phrase was frequently used to even refer to people living in Townsville, not just Sydney or Melbourne.

Queensland is a vast state, and political views are often different to those in the south and east of Australia. Credit: Glenn Hunt

Perhaps it was the legacy of the rumoured Brisbane line, where Queensland, north of Brisbane, was to be abandoned to the invading Japanese, which shaped Queensland parochialism, or maybe it was just the lack of services and the need to be self-reliant.

Whatever the origin of the parochialism, the Queensland election saw it at play on Saturday, when Queenslanders followed the Premier and ignored calls from the Prime Minister, the Premier of NSW and the Queensland tourism industry to open the Queensland borders. Clearly Queensland parochialism is far from dead. Peter Dutton, Pauline Hanson and the Katter Party, all keen players of the parochial card, will now find it harder to attack the mandate of the Queensland government.

The rebuilding of the Queensland economy requires the opening of the border to all of NSW. That is a fact. Queensland cannot remain isolated from Sydney and Victoria forever. To do so would destroy the Queensland economy and leave Queensland as an economic backwater.

The problem facing Queensland in managing the coronavirus is the history of border closures. The Queensland government’s decision to close its borders has given many Queenslanders a false sense of security. It reduced the spread of the virus in the short term but left the tourism industry and many small businesses devastated. Queensland is Australia’s small business state.

Police stop vehicles at the Queensland-NSW border in Coolangatta.Credit: Getty Images

If there is no vaccine widely available before mid-2021, Queensland has no choice but to manage the hotspots of infection. Having a mobile and effective contact tracing system in place while opening up the economy is the only way forward. NSW has shown this can be achieved effectively. Forget the stupid party politics, it is the model for all of Australia.

If Australia can become a safe island continent where the virus is managed effectively, the positive economic implications will be powerful for our future. We can then carefully open up to other safe destinations, such as New Zealand, the Pacific and then possibly Japan and Singapore, depending on infection rates.

Australia has the opportunity to lead the world and the new Queensland government, with a full four-year term under its belt, has an opportunity to lead from the front. The real challenge for Queensland is whether the new government has the vision, courage and determination to lead Queensland out of the pandemic. Time and history will be the judge of that.

Politics should never be just about winning. It should be about winning to implement a program of reform to better the people, to make the state or nation a better place.

Anthony Albanese should come up with positive plans on how to lead Australia out of the pandemic and challenge the government to implement them.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

For Labor federally, the Queensland result is a win and in today’s brutal politics a win is a win. Nevertheless, there is a challenge for Opposition Leader Anthony Albanese. It is in blending opposing the government and being positive at the same time. The way forward is clear. The Labor opposition should come up with positive plans on how to lead Australia out of the pandemic and challenge the government to implement them. For the government, it is outlining and implementing its own plan.

The key challenge for all sides of politics is whether we are a country or a collection of six states and two Territories. COVID-19 has divided us. The federal government needs to unite us. If that fails, the federal government should vigorously challenge the border closures in the High Court to see if they are constitutional.

I am a Queenslander who lives in NSW but I am first and foremost an Australian. I am tired of the interstate rivalry. I want a united Australian response to COVID-19 and for us to grow up as a nation.

Peter Beattie is a former Labor premier of Queensland and Commissioner on the Australian Rugby League Commission.