Peter Gleeson: Palaszczuk Government border decision has made Queensland safe but economic basket case

While Queenslanders look to NSW and Victoria getting on with life despite huge case numbers, when will the realisation dawn that we must live with the virus, asks Peter Gleeson.

THE Palaszczuk Government is so hopelessly inept and incompetent, it doesn’t even know when it will open up Queensland to the rest of the world.

They haven’t got a clue. No plan, no road map, no idea. It will wait on the poll figures leading into the Christmas-New Year break to determine its next move.

In other words, if Queenslanders get double vaxxed at a rate of 80 per cent or better - and they’ve had enough of not seeing their families from other states and going broke - the government will open the borders.

If, however, Queenslanders tell pollsters they are keen to remain Covid-free and don’t want the borders reopened, they will remain closed.

Border on Griffith Street Coolangatta, Gold Coast. Photo: Scott Powick Newscorp

It’s in your hands. One of the big drivers of increasing vaccination rates has been the belief – maybe misguided – that if you get vaccinated, your freedoms and liberties to travel and see family will be okayed.

Most people, when asked why they get the jab, say to protect themselves and family from coronavirus and to travel overseas or interstate.

They are compelling reasons – stay alive and travel, especially to see loved ones, many of whom haven’t seen each other for more than 18 months.

This billboard, put up on one of the city’s busiest intersections by Burleigh MP Michael Hart, sums up the feeling of many people.

But for Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, handling the Covid-19 crisis is a double-edged sword.

Firstly, it’s about protecting Queenslanders and for that she must be given enormous credit. The government’s hard line border stance and hard and fast lockdown policy has worked. The downside is the state has become an economic basket case.

Closed shops and quiet streets in Coolangatta from border closure. Picture: NIGEL HALLETT

Secondly, for the Labor Government, the mandarins in George Street know that the electorate are judging this government on one issue and one issue alone – how it handles Covid-19.

That’s why Ms Palaszczuk will not commit to reopening the borders, even if the state’s double vax rate is 90 per cent.

They have much to lose if the Delta variant runs rampant in Queensland. Any electoral gains garnered through its handling of Covid-19 simply evaporate.

The electorate will say – but you told us you’d keep us safe and now we are not.

That’s why frustrated tourism operators and small businesses, going broke because of the constant lockdowns and border closures, are so frustrated.

They look at NSW and even Victoria, with huge case numbers, getting on with life, realising that they must live with the virus.

Queensland and Western Australia have cut themselves off to the rest of the world. Now, Queenslanders may well think this is the best approach and continue to support that strategy.

But eventually, you would think, they will tire of the economic hardship and the fact they can’t see loved ones. Eventually.

Premier of Queensland Annastacia Palaszczuk - Picture: Richard Walker

That’s when Ms Palaszczuk will hit the go button and open up. The other big reason is the farcical way in which this government has presided over the maladministration of our hospital system.

They’ve had 18 months to get the hospitals right to cope with a large delta outbreak, yet the hospital system remains in crisis. Queensland Health couldn’t run a chook raffle.

Code yellow scenarios are unfolding throughout Queensland and ramping is now common in most hospitals, especially in the southeast.

The real reason for the code yellow crisis in hospitals is a shortage of staff due to the vaccination mandate given with two weeks notice to nurses.

Get your first jab by September 30 or do not turn up to work, was the Queensland health directive. Some nurses applied for exemptions and those determinations have not been released.

For battered and bruised tourism workers, the key date is now December 7. That’s when Queensland will hit 80 per cent double vaccination.

That’s when Ms Palaszczuk will have to make the biggest decision of her political career. Does she open up and run the risk of losing her only electoral advantage, or keep us closed, cocooned from the rest of the world?

She’ll have to open up eventually. After all, we do have an Olympics to host in 2032.