Queensland border may reopen before challenges hit court

After today’s announcement that interstate travel will resume, two separate High Court challenges to reopen Queensland’s borders – including one by billionaire businessman Clive Palmer – might not proceed to trial before the state’s borders reopen.

IT’S possible that Queensland’s borders will have reopened before two court High Court cases challenging the government-imposed restrictions are ready to proceed to trial.

Billionaire Queenslander Clive Palmer and a separate group of renegade tourism operators fed up with the border restrictions have taken the Queensland Government to court in a bid to open the state back up to interstate travel.

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While it had been raised that the matters could potentially proceed to a combined trial with another High Court challenge of Western Australia’s borders brought by Mr Palmer’s flagship company Mineralogy at the end of this month, the court today heard that timeline may be too optimistic.

Billionaire businessman Clive Palmer. Picture: AAP/Dan Peled

Lawyers for the parties told Chief Justice Susan Kiefel they had so far been unable to agree on facts surrounding the transmission of the coronavirus and the impact that border closures had on its continued spread.

All three cases were adjourned for a further mention on Tuesday where the direction and timeline for the trial is expected to be discussed.

A trial before a full bench had been pencilled in to begin on June 29 with lawyers due to call a number of expert witnesses about the impacts of the closure.

The hearing this afternoon came as news broke of plans to reopen Queensland’s borders on July 10.