The state government would have been feeling significant pressure to end the COVID-19 lockdown before Good Friday
The state government was faced with a tough call on Thursday morning
Ipswich
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OPINION
Just when you think we’ve seen the worst of the chaos that this coronavirus pandemic can cause, it pops its head up again.
The timing of this latest crisis was very interesting.
Community transmission, complicated by the obvious desire not to cause the loss of millions, if not billions of dollars of Easter long weekend tourism spending, made for a tense race to get this thing sorted before Good Friday.
QT reporter Lachy McIvor and I had a bit of an informal wager on Thursday morning on what the state government would do with regards to the lockdown.
Needless to say, neither of us picked an early noon finish, but if you think about it, it has some logic to it.
The state government would be conscious of the fact that a 5pm finish to the lockdown could have resulted in a mad rush for holiday makers in the early evening.
We all know what that means. Congestion, and the added risk of crashes. A deadset nightmare for police at a time when they are possibly light-on for personnel.
From that point of view, a noon finish to the lockdown is a smart move because it should help even out the traffic flow.
What worries me slightly is if the state government has jumped the gun slightly.
As Annastacia Palaszczuk said, we are not out of the woods yet, despite some early positive signs.
Given recent events, you wouldn’t have to stretch your imagination too far to think that there’s a good chance coronavirus is still floating around out there among people who are unaware or wilfully ignorant of the fact they are spreading it.
The state government was faced with a tough decision on Thursday. There is a risk, I believe, in finishing the lockdown early, but I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t relieved.
We will watch closely over the coming weeks to see what comes of these so-called “clusters” in Brisbane, and hope the number of cases remains within a controllable range, otherwise we could be in for further inconvenience and pain before the vaccine has any effect on the general population.
Here are some more of the top stories from across Ipswich this week
Memories from a time we’d rather forget
Like an episode of the show Hoarders, Ipswich City Council has been forced to rid itself of some predominantly useless junk that was once treasured for some long forgotten reason.
This week we reported that $53,000 worth of sporting memorabilia acquired by the council over the years would be auctioned off, with the money to go back into the community.
While I have no reason to doubt the valuation placed on all this old stuff, part of me wonders if it will fetch anywhere near this amount of money when it actually goes under the hammer.
A question remains over who would actually want to hand over their hard-earned for any of this stuff.
From what I have seen, some of it looks like the type of thing you wouldn’t mind having hanging over the bar in your little “man cave”, but a lot of it looks like tacky old junk, I’m sorry to say.
But, if it helped a community organisation raise some funds years ago, then it has probably served its purpose. I guess if it can be used to somehow raise funds to go back into the community once again, all the better.
Unfortunately it was not a happy Easter for about 1000 people at the Dinmore meatworks this year.
The floods were blamed for a shortage of cattle, which JBS management says was the trigger for standing down its workers for one week.
The shutdown also coincides with the need to repair a boiler at the Dinmore facility.
Despite the circumstances, it is easy to understand the frustration of the workers, especially given the timing, and the fact that this isn’t the first stand-down.
Let’s hope JBS can get things up and running as soon as possible for the sake of those people who need to feed their families and pay the bills.
There has been a great deal of scepticism over the existing plan to fix the at-times diabolic Warrego Hwy-Mt Crosby Rd interchange.
If you’ve driven through – or parked there I should say – at peak hour, you will understand.
It can be far more than an inconvenience. The way traffic backs up on the Warrego off-ramps can make it downright dangerous.
As I have commented before, it is a deadset miracle that someone hasn’t been killed as a result of having to queue up on the left hand side of the highway at the exits.
Whatever action is taken here, the state government needs to make sure it solves that potentially fatal issue first and foremost.
Public transport upgrade a win for Ipswich
Disability advocates and public transport watchers were pleased with this week’s announcement of long-overdue upgrades at Ipswich train station.
As part of the work, 50-year-old lifts will be replaced, and the platform will be lifted to create less of a height difference for people getting on and off trains.
Both upgrades make sense to the people we spoke to about it, and both will be worth the short inconvenience during the construction phase.
While disability advocates say the rail network at large is lagging behind in being brought up to scratch in terms of accessibility, it has been good to see the improvements made so far at East Ipswich and Bundamba, in addition to Ipswich.
Originally published as The state government would have been feeling significant pressure to end the COVID-19 lockdown before Good Friday
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