Covid-19 Gold Coast: Mayor Tom Tate blasts exposure site delay, calls for investigation into Victorian Premier Dan Andrews
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate has blasted the delay in releasing exposure sites and demanded the resignation of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews in a fiery rant.
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GOLD Coast Mayor Tom Tate has blasted Queensland Health, the Argentinian rugby team, called for a royal commission into Covid and demanded the resignation of Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews.
Cr Tate took aim at all three in a fiery and freewheeling press conference at the Home of the Arts this morning as the state recorded six new cases of Covid.
The Mayor said he understood the frustrations of Gold Coasters who were forced to wait more than eight hours for Queensland Health to reveal contact tracing sites on Wednesday after announcing two new cases in the city.
“I am disappointed it took eight hours before we knew which shops were hotspots,” he said.
“They come out and blurb all the suburbs. That’s not very helpful for those residents who wonder if they need to get tested.
“It’s not good enough. What are you doing Queensland Health?
“They need to do better next time because it created uncertainty and panic.”
Six members of the Argentinian rugby team have been barred from playing in Saturday nights test after breaking tournament biosecurity regulations with an unsanctioned trip to northern NSW.
Cr Tate, a rugby tragic, said their behaviour was unacceptable.
“It is unfortunate they did not take notice or did not get the right advice and they cannot play,” he said.
“I’m not trying to make an excuse for the argies but if you make a mistake, you get benched. That’s life”
Victoria on Thursday morning recorded five deaths and 1438 new cases of Covid overnight, a significant jump on previous days.
Cr Tate said he was shocked by the numbers and called on Mr Andrews to apologise and resign.
“It is unfortunateVictoria has a breakout to the same level as Sydney and my heart goes out to them but we must secure our borders,” he said.
“It goes back to Daniel Andrews, the Premier who was so chuffed and made degrading comments on Gladys in NSW on how good he was doing and how bad NSW was.
“It’s come back to show his solution is no better than NSW.
“At the very least, be a man and apologise. Then be a bigger man and resign.
“Before he resigns, Scott Morrison should do a royal commission, prove the case and then kick him out.”
SEP 29:
MAYOR Tom Tate says he was cautiously optimistic the Gold Coast would avoid its third lockdown of the year despite a fresh outbreak in the city.
Queensland has recorded a new local Covid-19 case linked to Biggera Waters on the Gold Coast, while an existing case has been linked to Gaven.
The two people are believed to have visited Currumbin, Mermaid Beach, Mermaid Waters, Miami, Merrimac, Nerang, Palm Beach and Surfers Paradise while infected.
Cr Tate said he was “confident” Gold Coasters would respond to the latest mask rules.
“We have shown incredible resilience throughout this pandemic and I remain confident that if everyone who believes they may have been at an exposure site gets tested and self isolates, our city will come through this,” he said.
“Of course, the next 48 hours is important for the entire SEQ corner but I remain cautiously optimistic that the early identification of the two cases will see us come through without lockdown.’’
Opposition leader and Broadwater MP David Crisafulli called for a “two-fold” approach to city lockdown.
“If we’re on the cusp of another scenario where an outbreak is upon us, we must (have) another business support package,” he said.
“And we have to have a plan for a pathway out of this pandemic.
“(Small and family business owners) want to know there’s support to keep the wolf at the door and that there’s a long-term plan out of this.”
REVEALED: REAL REASON WHY COAST SHOULD HOST NRL GRAND FINAL
STATE of Origin greats, team bosses and tourism industry figures have backed an 11th-hour push for the Gold Coast to host the National Rugby League grand final if Brisbane is ruled out over the latest Covid outbreak.
The NRL is in crisis talks with the state government over an alternate location for the big game after four new cases of community transmission were recorded on Tuesday.
While Townsville is considered favourite to replace Suncorp Stadium, Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate said Cbus Super Stadium at Robina was the obvious choice for the grand final, given the logistic nightmare of getting ticketholders for the sold-out game to north Queensland.
“The NRL could do a ticket transfer for all ticketholders who will travel into Brisbane for the final,” Mayor Tate said.
“This is not about a single NRL game. This is about community safety and our city is the obvious choice for the final given we are 80km from Suncorp Stadium.’’
Cbus Stadium was a late call up to host the third State of Origin game in July.
Mr Tate was backed by Gold Coast Titans chairman Dennis Watt, former Queensland captain Gorden Tallis and Destination Gold Coast chairman Paul Donovan.
Tallis, who won three premierships with the Brisbane Broncos, said the Gold Coast had proven it could host major events. “Let’s hope it still is at Suncorp but the Gold Coast does a fantastic job with Origin and with the Titans games,” he said.
Mr Watt said Robina had “proven itself capable” of hosting major events.
“Cbus could very well be in consideration given it proved itself capable of hosting major events,” he said. “We certainly could support it.”
Mr Donovan urged Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to consider the Gold Coast as the first port of call if Brisbane was ruled out.
“It would be much easier for ticketholders to get down here than it would be to get up to Townsville,” he said.
Ms Palaszczuk on Tuesday said Suncorp Stadium remained the location of the game.
ARL Commission boss Peter V’landys said Townsville’s Queensland Country Bank Stadium was on standby if Suncorp Stadium could not be used. “The grand final won’t stay at Suncorp if there is a lockdown, but at this stage there isn’t one, so we have to hope and pray there isn’t a lockdown,” he said.
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Stadiums Queensland, the owner of Cbus Stadium, said it had not been approached by the NRL about hosting the game on the Coast.
CBUS Stadium previously hosted the third State of Origin game in July once Newcastle became unavailable because of NSW’s Delta Strain outbreak.
ARL Commission boss Peter V’landys says Townsville’s Queensland Country Bank Stadium is on standby if Suncorp Stadium could not be used.
“We are talking to the government,” V’landys said.
“At this stage it is not a concern but we will know more as the day unfolds.
“The grand final won’t stay at Suncorp if there is a lockdown, but at this stage there isn’t one, so we have to hope and pray there isn’t a lockdown.”
Asked what will happen if the Queensland government won’t allow the NRL grand final to be played at Suncorp, V’landys said: “Townsville is Plan B.
“There’s two cases but they are husband and wife so hopefully it can be well contained.
“We will see what happens later today. I don’t have too much information at this stage.”
Gold Coast braces for Covid ‘punch to the head’
A GOLD Coast business leader urging Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk not deliver the city an “inevitable punch to the head” after two mystery Covid cases detected in Brisbane overnight.
The business community and Mayor Tom Tate were on tenterhooks on Tuesday morning, with fears about potential impacts on the near-sellout weekend Rugby Championship double-header at Cbus Super Stadium, featuring the All Blacks, Wallabies, South Africa and Argentina.
There are also fears the NRL grand final will be moved from Brisbane to Townsville.
The Premier confirmed there would be no lockdown announced on Tuesday.
‘DRAMATIC CHANGES’ NEEDED FOR COAST BUSINESS IN 2022
ASTONISHING TURNAROUND FOR COAST BUSINESS
Gold Coast Central Chamber of Commerce president Martin Hall said businesses were nervous.
“We are ready and bracing for the inevitable punch to the head but at the same time our expectations are not high,” he said.
“We have what we have right now and we cannot afford another lockdown because that would completely destroy the last crumbs of confidence that our businesses have.
“Who knows what it will mean for Christmas?”
Brisbane has been rocked by reports of a second Covid-19 case in a matter of hours, with a guesthouse in South Brisbane under police guard and more than a dozen people placed into isolation.
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In Brisbane, the Adalong Guesthouse student accommodation on Stephens Road has been cordoned off by police as authorities scramble to gather more information, but it is believed the case is not linked to the case detected in an aviation worker that was alerted late on Monday night.
Mayor Tom Tate urged Ms Palaszczuk to show caution and not plunge the entire southeast back into lockdown.
“Any detection of Covid in our community is a concern, but we have all shown that it can be managed locally,” he said.
“The Gold Coast remains Covid free with the residents abiding by all current social distancing and mask rules.
“I would hate to see our city forced into lockdown when this appears to be a matter of several isolated cases, so the next 24 hours is the key.”
Cr Tate said the Gold Coast had a strong Covid record.
“There has not been a single community transmission of Covid in our city since August last year and that underscores how seriously our residents are taking this global pandemic and how we are responding responsibly,” he said.
The Gold Coast was put into lockdown in July and August, costing the city more than $550 million.
‘The Commonwealth Games was bad, this is much worse’
DESPERATE Gold Coast tourism operators say they are weighing up their future as the spectre of a Christmas holiday season with closed borders looms.
The city’s biggest industry lost more than $1bn in the three months to September when compared to the same period in 2019.
Destination Gold Coast forecasts losses of $326m in September alone, down 68 per cent on pre-pandemic numbers.
The dire economic outlook, coupled with uncertainty over when Queensland’s border will reopen, has long-time traders considering packing it in entirely.
Rick’s Dive School owner Rick Anderson said the “economic lockdown” was the quietest of his 21 years in the tourism industry.
“We are currently relying on Brisbane people to be tourists and it is a major struggle,” he said.
“The bills don’t stop, they don’t go away and last year was OK because people had JobKeeper but right now we are down to nothing and nobody has money.
“People do not know where this is all going to go and if the borders don’t open by Christmas tourism is going to be dead and I am going to have to be looking at other options.
“It’s just getting way too difficult to keep it all going.”
The Delta outbreaks in NSW and Victoria and subsequent extended lockdowns have left the city almost entirely cut off from interstate visitors, with Gold Coast Airport traffic dropping to just 1 per cent of pre-Covid numbers.
Michael Stephens has owned Surfers Paradise’s The Breakers holiday apartments for 20 years and described the market conditions as “worse than the Commonwealth Games” in 2018 when visitors deserted the city because of fears of traffic congestion.
“People are too scared to come to Queensland and especially the Gold Coast because they don’t know if they’ll be able to get home,” Mr Stephens said.
‘There is no confidence.
‘The Commonwealth Games was bad. This is worse.”
The pandemic has claimed 20 per cent of the city’s tourism workforce since mid-2020 and another 4000 are tipped to follow before Christmas.
‘DRAMATIC CHANGES’ NEEDED FOR COAST BUSINESS IN 2022
Destination Gold Coast CEO Patricia O’Callaghan told struggling operators to hold on for another 100 days to see the economic rebound.
“We are a community of interconnected industries, employing one in six Gold Coasters,” she said.
“The industry has been hurting. We’ve seen support flow in from federal and state governments recently that’s going to go a long way. However, Covid has left a hole in the pockets of our tourism operators.”
At the weekend, $70m from the federal and state $600m support package for Queensland businesses was set aside for major tourism operators.
It includes grants of up to $4m for operators such as theme parks to stay afloat until the economy and states reopen.
Grants of $15,000, $25,000 and $50,000 are also available for small, medium and large businesses suffering a turnover decrease of 70 per cent.
Destination Gold Coast chairman Paul Donovan said he was confident the border would reopen by Christmas but admitted he understood the state government’s cautious stance.
“We need to stop the argy bargy rubbish that’s been going on and we need a national plan,” he said.
“This is a problem nobody has seen in our lifetimes.
“There is a genuine desire within the state government to open the border but do we open the border and let the awful Delta in or do we make sure we can get on top of it until we do.”
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