State of Origin needs to go ahead: Frecklington

The NRL supports thousands of local businesses, so if the Queensland Government really wants to send a signal to locals about kickstarting the economy they need to find a way for this year’s State of Origin to go ahead, writes Deb Frecklington.

The Premier’s captain’s call on NRL and State of Origin is offside, and it has nothing to do with football.

Once you take away the loyalty to your team and the state versus state rivalry, at its core this is primarily about a business trying to work with government to resume operation.

Annastacia Palaszczuk says no clear advice on safety of NRL restart

NRL boss Peter V’landys puts heat on Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk

The sad reality is most businesses can’t close for six months or 12 months and just re-start.

The Queensland Government’s priority should be working with all businesses to protect jobs now and support them to relaunch.

Queenslanders have made enormous sacrifices to slow the spread of coronavirus, but we now need to have sensible, grown-up discussions about how we can restart as many businesses as possible while still keeping our foot on the throat of the virus.

It is not a binary decision about jobs versus lives. The path forward is about working together and innovating so we can protect jobs and lives. The enormous sacrifices we have all made already must not be allowed to compound into an economic black hole of uncertainty.

The NRL wasn’t talking about starting up this weekend or even next weekend. They wanted to have a conversation with governments about how it may be able to restart its business. The NRL prudently acknowledged it won’t be business as usual, but we can’t let the new norm be an economic shutdown.

Hundreds of thousands of jobs depend on this occurring and the NRL is just the tip of the iceberg.

There are many more businesses out there that need the support of Government to restart and they know it won’t be business as usual.

It sends the wrong message to those in business that, without consultation, the Premier in a press conference categorically ruled out any consideration of businesses re-opening.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison rightly acknowledged the ambition and hope of the NRL. I agree we can’t let the virus kill our ambition and hope as we need it now more than ever. There would be no better signal to send than to find a way for the State of Origin to occur. Sure it won’t be in front of a packed crowd at Lang Park and you won’t see the masses on Caxton St, but it will send a message to every lounge room in Queensland that our ambition and hope isn’t lost and this virus won’t beat Queenslanders.

The Queensland Government needs to start working with every business on a way to restart the Queensland economy and continue to slow the spread of virus.

We need fewer captain’s calls and more consultation.