Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate: ‘Why not let it spread rapidly so we reach the peak sooner’

Outspoken Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate has urged the state government to treat Covid like the flu, stop changing rules and give vaxxed people their freedoms back.

As a society, we are rapidly slipping into a state of social unrest, uncertainty and division.

At the heart of this community angst is the ever-changing rules and regulations surrounding Covid-19.

I know many double and triple vaccinated residents who are now questioning where their supposed freedom went.

Mayor Tom Tate says give the vaccinated back their freedoms. Picture: Glenn Hampson

After all, for the past year, the state government has promised greater freedoms for those with the jab versus the unvaccinated.

So where did those freedoms go?

Last month, I strongly urged the state to open the borders, safe in the knowledge that Queensland was 80 per cent double vaxxed.

Opening the border was always going to see Omicron sweep across the state. It’s called “living with Covid”.

The Chief Health Officer has publicly stated that an open-border approach is the best way to tackle the virus – by letting it run its course.

So why is the state now changing community restrictions on a near daily basis?

The state claims it is all about slowing the spread. Why not let it spread rapidly so we reach the peak sooner, and our economy gets off life support faster?

This ‘policy on the run’ approach destroys the goodwill of the 88 per cent of Queenslanders double vaxxed, and worryingly, gives the pro-choice unvaccinated an air of authority and self-righteousness.

My message is: stop changing the rules, Covid is here … let’s deal with it as we would the influenza.

Throughout 2019, five people a week died from the flu yet governments didn’t mandate business closures and deny children their education.

I’ve met a lot of politicians and not many have ever been at the coalface of running their own small business.

I wonder if they would be so trigger happy with rule changes if it was their money, or mortgaged family home, on the line?

As a society, we are now learning that scores of elective surgery procedures are now being put on hold, as the state health system starts to buckle.

I wonder how many deaths that may result in when people miss surgery – or associated diagnosis – that could have saved their lives.

People line up for a Covid test at the Gold Coast University Hospital. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

We can add the countless deaths through suicide that have come from the pressure on individuals over the past 22 months.

My steadfast message to all leaders is: scrap the pre-travel RAT requirement for tourists entering any state (if they are double vaccinated let them in); this will end the waste of precious tests on healthy people; get hold of every available Rapid Antigen Test and get them in the hands of small business owners so their staff can get back to work; get vaccinated if you haven’t already; and open the international borders to welcome anyone that has double vaccination status and ideally, a booster shot.

Any further rule changes and the goodwill of the community is heading for the same trash bin as the wasted Covid tests.