Easier to visit Bali than Brisbane as Qld stays shut to the world
As NSW residents get ready to head overseas again without quarantining, Queenslanders stuck interstate still don’t know when they can come home.
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Australians will be able to holiday overseas without quarantining on their return to NSW within weeks but thousands of Queenslanders stuck interstate still don’t know when they will be allowed home.
Chief health officer Jeannette Young was late Friday still sizing up the implications of the NSW Government’s decision to drop all quarantine requirements for double-vaccinated people, including international arrivals, from November 1.
The shock news came as the Queensland Government still refused to give any details on a road map to living with Covid, including when hard borders will fall, when home quarantine will be allowed, and when Queenslanders who have been stranded in Victoria and NSW for more than seven weeks will be allowed home.
Health Minister Yvette D’Ath instead put the impetus back on Queenslanders getting vaccinated, asking them: “What sort of Christmas do you want to see?”
“We can provide the vaccine, but we can’t drag people in to get vaccinated,” she said.
The shifting of responsibility onto individuals came as Dr Young declared: “We are all going to end up being infected with Covid, every single person in Queensland.”
“But if you’ve been vaccinated, it’s highly unlikely that you’ll get sick.”
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Scott Morrison was forced to slap down the new NSW Premier, insisting only Australian citizens, permanent residents and their immediate families would be allowed in, rather than the tourists and business travellers from “around the world” Dom Perrottet had earlier promised could enter.
The initial announcement was met with uncertainty by the Palaszczuk government, which had been awaiting the results of a NSW trial of 7-day home quarantine of returned overseas travellers to inform their own plans.
Dr Young said she needed to assess the NSW decision.
“I need to go and analyse that decision so it’s only just been announced this morning, so before making any comment I need a little bit of time to work out exactly what it means,” she said.
But with the issuing of travel visas a federal responsibility, Mr Morrison effectively scrapped Mr Perrottet’s plan just hours after it was revealed by announcing holiday-makers, skilled-workers and international-student visas would not be issued yet.
Mr Morrison, who was only informed Friday morning of the Perrottet Government’s decision, said he had been in touch with all other state premiers to assure them only Australians would be allowed in under the new arrangements.
“We are not opening up to everyone coming back to Australia at the moment. I want to be clear about that,” the Prime Minister said.
However, he confirmed fully-vaccinated Australians would be able to fly out of Sydney to Bali for a holiday and then return without undertaking quarantine from November 30.
Mr Morrison said it would be up to the individual states on how they wanted to proceed on the return of international travel, which couldn’t restart until a state hit 80 per cent vaccination.
“Each state and territory will make their judgments about that,” he said.
“I think it’s good to have a range of options that are being pursued by the states and territories.”
It’s not known how many Queenslanders are currently stuck interstate with police only able to provide figures accurate as of October 1.
Those figures showed 3943 applications had been submitted by people wanting to get home while 7194 people had applied to relocate between September 5 and October 1.
A total of 2,745 people – either returning Queenslanders or people relocating – were placed into quarantine between September 6 and October 1.
As of Friday, 19 quarantine hotels were online providing 2465 rooms.
Asked about whether NSW’s decision made it more or less likely Queensland’s border would reopen, Ms D’Ath said authorities weren’t concentrating on what other jurisdictions were doing with their borders and quarantine.
“We need to get Queenslanders vaccinated,” she said.
“It’s in the hands of Queenslanders how quickly they want us to open up, they must get vaccinated.”
The Minister said NSW’s decision made it “even more critical” to get vaccinated now, flagging it takes five to six weeks to be fully immunised with some vaccines.
“We’ve got no time to waste,” she said.
“This virus is coming, it’s coming to Queensland.
“Everyone needs to get vaccinated now, because we can’t talk about the plan forward and opening up if Queenslanders aren’t coming out and getting vaccinated in big numbers.”
Asked whether NSW’s decision made it more or less likely that the border would reopen by Christmas, Dr Young said she still had to work out what the change meant.
The Palaszczuk government insisted the “benefits” of its regional quarantine facility at Toowoomba, and the Commonwealth’s at Pinkenba, were unaffected – flagging the unpredictable nature of the pandemic.
At Wellcamp, 500 beds are scheduled to come online in December while Pinkenba is expected to be finished in the first half of next year.
At Friday’s press conference, Ms D’Ath said she hoped there would be no need to quarantine this time next year.
A spokeswoman for Mr Morrison confirmed he stood by previous comments that the Pinkenba facility, due to be finished in the first half of next year, was about “long-term need not just short-term requirement”.
As well as playing a role in any future pandemics, the facility is expected to be used to respond to other health crises, natural disasters that require emergency accommodation or humanitarian situations such as the recent Afghanistan evacuation.
Queensland recorded no new locally acquired cases on Friday.
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