Reasons Palaszczuk government may be reluctant to say when it will open up

There are a few things we can expect to happen if border restrictions are lifted. And they may help explain why the Premier is so reluctant to open up, writes Keith Woods.

THERE’S an old saying, supposedly coined by Benjamin Franklin and made popular again recently by former Manchester United soccer player Roy Keane: “Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.”

The wisdom of these words may soon catch up with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who has raised the alarm about how hospitals will cope when Covid-19 finally spreads through Queensland. This despite the fact that the pandemic has been in full swing globally for more than 18 months.

It’s easy to see why Ms Palaszczuk might be concerned. The latest Queensland Health data shows that ramping at Gold Coast University Hospital (GCUH) has climbed to 50 per cent, up 17.5 per cent in just 12 months. Robina is not far behind, with 45 per cent of patients left waiting in ambulances. In Logan the figure is 58 per cent.

The Gold Coast also has fewer hospital beds per head of population than most Australian cities. GCUH and Robina have 1114 beds between them. With an estimated population of 710,000, this would equate to just under 1.6 hospital beds per 1000 people. The national average is 2.6.

It’s why our astonishingly hard-working health staff are flat out. As Gaven MP Meaghan Scanlon admitted last year, “Gold Coast hospitals are among the busiest in the state.”

Ambulances lined up at the Gold Coast University Hospital.

After more than six years in office, the Palaszczuk government is finally getting serious about building a new hospital in Coomera. But its opening could be the guts of a decade away.

Coomera MP Michael Crandon, who has campaigned on the issue for many years, reckons we will be “very fortunate” to see the project over the line within a decade.

It is not just in the area of health that we are arguably doing too little to prepare for a post-pandemic future.

Your columnist was struck by the level of traffic clogging Gold Coast on Monday, as thousands headed to the beaches on a scorching hot public holiday.

It was just about possible to slowly get around. Moving from one clogged road to the next, it was hard not to wonder what conditions would have been like if our borders were not closed to visitors from Melbourne and Sydney.

In June, an RACQ study revealed that traffic on key Gold Coast roads was already at levels seen before the outbreak of Covid-19.

“Congestion is well above pre-pandemic levels,” said RACQ head of public policy Susan Furze.

“It’s time to increase capacity and cater to commuters’ changing travel behaviours.

“ ... Traffic on some stretches of the Pacific Motorway is at a crawl, with drivers travelling at around half the speed limit around Helensvale and Coomera.”

Southbound traffic on the M1 at Helensvale at 4.30pm on a Monday afternoon. Picture: Nigel Hallett.

The key to fixing these problems, in the northern Gold Coast especially, is the Coomera Connector. But cost blowouts mean this project too may be many years away. Transport Minister Mark Bailey’s plea to the federal government for another $316m for the road has been met with a chilly response, casting fresh doubt on the project.

One has to wonder what our roads would look like if the border reopened fully, not just allowing in tourists from overseas and interstate, but prompting a fresh wave of immigration.

Gold Coasters are entitled to feel short-changed, given they pay some of the highest rego fees in Australia.

All of the above may be contributing to Ms Palaszczuk’s reluctance to spell out how Queensland will reopen when most of the population is vaccinated.

The focus on containing Covid has helped mask problems that were building anyway, and may be quickly exposed after any “freedom day”.

Our booming population is putting an extraordinary strain on roads and services. Fate has delivered us an extra 18 months to prepare. Have we done so, or are we destined to fail?

PREVIOUSLY: FAMILIES LEFT IN LIMBO BY CRUEL FOOT-DRAGGING

THIS column does not know if Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is fond of visiting Bunnings.

Most likely, the time-honoured weekend ritual is something she is unable to participate in due to her public profile.

But if, like this columnist, she had passed through Bunnings in Oxenford on Saturday she may have noticed that a large assortment of Christmas lights are already in stock.

The display certainly did not go unnoticed by children at the store, excited by the realisation that – although still some 12 weeks away – the countdown is on to their favourite time of year.

Soon it will be time for them to scribble out their Santa letters. Among adults, families are making plans.

Unfortunately, although vaccination rates are soaring, those plans cannot yet include welcoming family and friends from interstate or overseas.

Still frozen by Covid fear, Ms Palaszczuk’s government appear unable to clearly outline the circumstances in which we may once again welcome visitors to this state.

Is it when 80 per cent or 90 per cent are double jabbed? Will it be when children have been included in the vaccine roll-out? Who really knows.

Christmas decorations have already begun to appear in Bunnings stores.

People isolated from their families as Christmas approaches, and anyone involved in our battered tourism industry, has a right to feel aggrieved.

The situation is reminiscent of the early months of the pandemic, when Ms Palaszczuk’s government doggedly refused to reopen borders even when Covid outbreaks down south had been brought under control.

Back then, the line was always that they’d review the border closure “at the end of the month”.

These days, there’s a new favourite reason to procrastinate.

“It’s going to depend on modelling and our discussions at national cabinet,” Ms Palaszczuk said on Monday, repeating a line that’s been employed in one form or another for weeks.

How odd. This state government has little issue taking unilateral decisions in other areas. Consider the quarantine facility under construction at Toowoomba, at a cost being kept secret from the taxpayer, despite a lack of federal support. Where was the “modelling” or national cabinet meeting to justify that one?

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk at the site of a quarantine hub that will be built at Wellcamp Airport in Toowoomba with John Wagner and Joe Wagner. Picture: Jack Tran

Other Australian states are busily announcing reopening plans, with NSW saying this week it would allow international travel from December.

The situation in NSW is clearly different, given the Covid cat is out of the bag, while we in Queensland still record zero cases.

But as Qantas CEO Alan Joyce pointed out, it will be a “weird” situation if it becomes possible to fly from Sydney to London, but not Perth or Brisbane.

The victims will be those who depend on our tourism industry for their income, and those separated from family.

Time is already running out for tourist industry hopes of a decent summer season. A Seven News report on Qantas plans as travel opens up in southern states, broadcast in New South Wales this week, concluded by advising Sydney viewers “it might be safer to book a white Christmas than a sunny one”, against images of snow-bound London and the Gold Coast skyline.

Deputy Premier Steven Miles snippily declared at the weekend that Queenslanders do not want Covid for Christmas. He is right. But neither do they want joblessness. Or indefinite isolation.

The key to avoiding all of the above is vaccination and millions across Queensland have acknowledged this, rolled up their sleeves and gone on the nice list.

On the Gold Coast, more than 60 per cent of people have had their first jab.

People have done so to protect their own health and that of those around them. But also in the hope that things can get back to something like normal as soon as possible. That people in the tourism industry might have a future. That families torn apart by this pandemic might soon be reunited. They deserve to know when that might be.

This column spoke recently to a Gold Coast resident who has not seen his wife and young daughter, who are overseas, since early last year.

As with more people than I think we realise, he has stoically worn the pain.

His daughter, like all children, will no doubt count down the days to Christmas. It isn’t hard to imagine what she most fervently wishes for.

But unless we get a roadmap for reopening soon, it’s not something Santa will be able to bring.

Originally published as Reasons Palaszczuk government may be reluctant to say when it will open up