Why Victorians should avoid Queensland like the plague

Even now that Queensland’s borders are open to Victorians we are treated like disease-riddled second class citizens. This is why your holiday dollars are better spent elsewhere.

“We teach people how to treat us,” according to TV psychologist Dr Phil McGraw.

Following that logic, Victorians should not rush to forgive, nor forget, the manner in which Queensland has treated us over the past two years.

We should certainly not reward their disdain and irrationality with our hard-earned dollars when there are plenty of other spots in the country and abroad where we could safely holiday.

Give me a week in Port Stephens instead of Port Douglas; at least we know the NSW government responds proportionately to coronavirus.

You’ll jump through fewer hoops holidaying in Fiji than Surfers Paradise — and it’ll probably cost the same given some of the deals on offer at the moment.

Even now that Queensland’s borders are open to Victorians we are treated like disease-riddled second class citizens who can be condemned to a period in quarantine despite being double vaccinated and returning a negative Covid-19 test.

All it takes for your holiday plans to end in tatters is being at an exposure site or having someone on your plane test positive.

If Queensland doesn’t want us, we should go somewhere else. Picture: Sarah Marshall

Queensland is still forcing everyone from overseas, or who has been to an interstate exposure site, to quarantine for 14 days at a government-nominated facility.

It is clear that their bureaucracy is still trapped in a March 2020 mindset with delusions of elimination.

We should also not forget how their health bureaucrats so thoroughly undermined the Australian-made AstraZeneca vaccine not just in their own state but across the country.

Jeannette Young, who until recently was Queensland’s chief health officer, indulged in hysterical decisions and commentary that did untold damage particularly in late June when she said she didn’t want under-40s to get the AZ jab.

“I don’t want an 18-year-old in Queensland dying from a clotting illness who, if they got Covid, probably wouldn’t die,” she said.

“We have had very few deaths due to Covid-19 in Australia in people under the age of 50 and wouldn’t it be terrible that our first 18-year-old in Queensland who dies related to this pandemic, died because of the vaccine.”

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk arrives for a Covid press conference with chief health officer Jeannette Young in June. Picture: John Gass

Young was right about the virus disproportionately impacting the very old and very ill but it was highly improper to undermine the vaccination rollout given the restoration of our freedoms were tied to ambitious vaccination targets being met for all over 16s.

But instead of being demoted, Young has earned herself the plum role of governor of the state of Queensland.

Of course our own state government has also been deplorable but for sheer cruelty and boneheaded callousness it is hard to go past the Annastacia Palaszczuk government.

This is the mob that forced a burns victim to travel twice the distance to a NSW hospital, denied entry to children requiring critical medical care and separated mothers from their toddlers because of their border closures.

We all feel terribly sorry for Queensland’s tourism operators, but Victorians should consider going elsewhere this Christmas. Picture Glenn Hampson

We all feel terribly sorry for the state’s tourism operators, as we feel sorry for those in Western Australia, but we cannot overlook how the Queensland government has behaved, and continues to behave.

Actions have consequences and one consequence of Queensland’s heavy-handed response will be loss of goodwill and tourism dollars.

How much remains to be seen.

One of the most sensible things Dan Andrews has ever said was “why would you want to go there” when asked about travel to South Australia.

We should have the same attitude to Queensland for as long as they cling to their absurd Covid-zero fantasies.