Pressure on Palaszczuk over border closure
Irate business owners have challenged the Premier to see the financial and emotional carnage of border closures first hand.
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ANNASTACIA Palaszczuk has added further fuel to the feud with thousands of struggling Gold Coast business owners by admitting she will always act on the advice of chief health officer Jeannette Young.
For the second day running, the Queensland premier declined to answer Gold Coast Bulletin questions about the desperate plight of angry traders and her flip-flopping over the reopening of the NSW border as the city looked for a way out of the coronavirus nightmare.
Ms Palaszczuk is expected to visit the Gold Coast today to announce support for the tourism industry. Irate business owners yesterday challenged her to see the financial and emotional carnage first-hand. It is understood the Premier and Tourism Minister Kate Jones will meet with Gold Coast industry representatives next week.
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Business leaders and traders are furious with Ms Palaszczuk’s announcement this week that the border may not open until September, two months later than earmarked in the state’s three-stage rollout. They are also angry with her comments that the tourism industry would be able to bounce back from the shutdowns. Thousands have already lost their jobs.
They believe many businesses will go to the wall in that time and cannot understand why the economic hardship of Australia’s small business capital was being overlooked given Queensland’s low COVID-19 cases.
The state recorded no new cases yesterday. Queensland has 12 active cases, two of which are on the Gold Coast.
Since January, 195 people have been diagnosed with the virus on the Coast. The city has not seen a new case since last week.
The Bulletin again asked the Premier yesterday what prompted her to raise a September border reopening, to clarify her comment about tourism rebounding from shutdowns and if she had been in close contact with business leaders.
A brief response from the Premier’s office included: “Premier is on the Coast tomorrow. She will always act on the advice of the state’s chief health officer.”
The Premier’s reply came as NSW yesterday announced it would ease restrictions to allow 50 people in restaurants and clubs from June 1.
Respected Demographer Bernard Salt yesterday said the Gold Coast was on the economic frontline of the coronavirus crisis and a careful balance between the economy and health concerns was needed.
He expected the border to open sooner than September given growing political and economic pressure.
“Because of the unique weighting of the Gold Coast economy the impact is more severe there than anywhere – which means the city will take longer to recover.”
On the reopening of the border, Mr Salt said: “There will be an increasing pressure placed on government leadership to comply and the initial hard line.”
Gold Coast Central Chamber of Commerce president Martin Hall said “things are beyond dire” for businesses on the Gold Coast.
“There’s absolutely no doubt the borders need to open. Small and medium-sized businesses on the Coast make up 60,000 separate businesses. When you swing a family off those it’s quite a sizeable amount of people affected. It’s terrible.
“We need the domestic borders opened up as soon as possible. We’re very cognizant of the road map that was put out. A lot of businesses did their due diligence around a July opening.
“We need to set a date so we can plan.”
Mr Hall said businesses need “trade not aid” and a return to relative normality.
Greater Southern Gold Coast Chamber of Commerce president Hilary Jacobs said: “We’ve only got a four per cent occupancy rate in the hotel business on the Gold Coast at the moment. That’s tiny. We really need to see people coming back.”
Gold Coast Medical Association president Philp Morris said it was advisable that restrictions, including border closures, were rolled back slowly.
Tweed MP Geoff Provest said Ms Palaszczuk was being “pig-headed” about the border lockdown.
“I think it’s a bit of a political stance from Annastacia, in all honesty. It’s very easy to get a cross border permit (Queensland Entry Pass). It takes two minutes on the internet. And each time I’ve gone through there the police seem terribly bored. They just wave you through.
“We’re really cranking things up with Destination NSW. We’re open for business.
“I’d hate to be a tourism operator on the Gold Coast. You’re just getting ground into the dirt.”
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