Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate questioned over border controversy as PM, business owners protest

Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate has been asked by the Bulletin whether he backs continued border closures as Prime Minister Scott Morrison calls for restrictions to be lifted and business owners protest.

PRIME Minister Scott Morrison is urging the Queensland Government to reopen its border by July with plenty of advance notice – or vital winter tourism into the Gold Coast and airline jobs will be lost.

In his strongest comments to date on Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s persistence with a controversial border block, Mr Morrison said “we need to open the borders, it’s simple”, in a 2GB radio interview yesterday.

“The timetable the National Cabinet has is interstate travel will be up and running again in July and so we need to get to that point and if we can do it sooner, that would be fantastic.

“States are taking their own health advice on this but the National Cabinet never made a decision to close any borders,” Mr Morrison said.

WHY MINISTER WON’T BE ‘BULLIED’ ON BORDERS

Prime Minister Scott Morrison. (AAP Image/Mick Tsikas)

When told Gold Coast Airport flights had plunged from 400-plus to three a week, decimating tourism and hospitality, he said: “We need to open the borders, it’s simple. That’s what is going to get flights moving again.”

Furious Gold Coast small business operators last week blasted Ms Palaszczuk for her border closure stance and accused Mayor Tom Tate – who backed her position – for leaving them “high and dry”.

Asked if he felt Ms Palaszczuk might reopen the Queensland border by July as opposed to September which her Chief Health Officer dubbed “more realistic”, Mr Morrison said: “I don’t know. I certainly hope she does. July was the time when interstate travel was supposed to be up and running again. That doesn’t mean it needs to be there today.

“We never said there should be borders. That was never the health advice, it was never the agreement. That was something they came up with on their own.

“The problem with that is if they leave it to announcing it in July, it means that people who might book a holiday for July, will have already booked it somewhere else, and they may be booking it in New Zealand. It’s really important we get the planes flying again.

“One of the reasons I’m keen on opening up this border with New Zealand again when we can, is it’s going to mean the planes are going to fly and the more planes are flying, the more jobs.”

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Mr Morrison said the success of embattled Virgin Australia – which flew in 46 per cent of the Gold Coast’s domestic visitors – depended on routes opening up again.

“Those jobs in Virgin depend on ensuring we open up our aviation industry and this is a blockage to that, and that’s threatening those jobs.”

The Bulletin asked Cr Tate – in light of Mr Morrison’s stark order to reopen the border and give plenty of notice – whether his backing of Premier Palaszczuk’s controversial border closure stood.

Cr Tate yesterday avoided restating his support for her stance, replying: “I’m waiting to hear from the Premier on the latest medical advice.”

But State Health Minister Steven Miles hit back at the Prime Minister: “Other states such as NSW and Victoria with more cases also have more restrictions in place within their borders because they have more cases.

“It is the success of our border restrictions that has kept those cases out and allowed us to lift these restrictions.

“We want to lift border restrictions, as soon as we possibly but safely can.

“That is what that assessment at the end of this month will tell us. We are not going to be bullied by Scott Morrison into putting the lives of Queensland at risk.”

Queensland Deputy Premier and Minister Health and Minister Ambulance Services, Steven Miles . (AAP Image/Darren England)

Mr Miles said the review at the end of the month would be implemented “about a week and a half” after a decision had been made.

“You have got to remember in Victoria they are still telling people it is not safe to go to their CBD.

“So are they seriously standing up and telling us that it is safe for them to come to Cairns, but not to go into the Melbourne CBD?

“We know southerners want to come to Queensland, for our fantastic climate, our great beaches, our national parks, the Great Barrier Reef.

“We want them to come but we want them when it is safe for them and safe for us.”

Mr Miles said Queensland was willing to discuss with other states with low cases the possibility of opening up a state-by-state travel bubble.

Police at the Queensland border checkpoint between Coolangatta and Tweed Heads. Picture: NIGEL HALLETT

The Gold Coast has two active cases remaining of 194 in total, with one of those infected still in intensive care at the Gold Coast University Hospital. Across the state there are three active cases, with 1060 infections in total. No new cases were discovered yesterday.

As well as the Prime Minister’s questioning of the border block, Federal Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham has previously wondered why the borders are closed.

Top federal health Adviser Professor Paul Kelly said late last month, in terms of the national advice, he “didn’t see a reason to close them in the first place”.

“It’s quite a different situation for the international border – and we know that there are still a lot of COVID-19 circulating in almost all the rest of the world,” he said two weeks ago. “So that’s a key component of our control, is the external border.

“In terms of internal borders, the decisions are made by different states for their own reasons, and it’ll be their decisions to reverse that.”