Queensland keeping walls up as NSW and Victoria plan to lift border ban

As NSW announces a massive change to its borders, Queensland is staying closed to Sydney until at least December.

Queensland’s Chief Health Officer makes decisions on the state’s border/ restrictions at the end of each month. Picture: NCA NewWire / Dan Peled

The Queensland premier has ruled out mirroring NSW and Victoria’s plan to relax border restrictions by November 23.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian said on Wednesday the border between her state and Victoria would come down this month.

She made the much anticipated announcement as Victoria notched a fifth straight “donut day” — zero new cases or deaths from COVID-19 – and NSW recorded three new locally acquired cases, all in isolation, and six in hotel quarantine.

Queensland recorded two new cases, both in hotel quarantine.

Queensland opened its borders to millions of NSW residents on Tuesday morning, but the more than 5 million residents in Sydney’s 32 local government areas remain locked out, as do Victorians.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said no new decisions on the border would be made until the end of November. Picture: Liam Kidston.

Ms Palaszczuk told reporters on Wednesday she would make a decision on whether Sydney and Victorian residents can travel to Queensland for Christmas by the end of the month.

“I’ve said all along we review those decisions at the end of the month, when the chief health officer will provide us her latest advice, which we will take,” Ms Palaszczuk said.

“What is encouraging from Victoria is their really low case numbers … but they are coming out of lockdown, so we’ll be looking carefully at them over November.

“Our number one goal is to keep Queenslanders safe.”

Decisions on easing the state’s border restrictions are made based on community transmission and testing rates, and Ms Palaszczuk said she wanted to make sure Victoria continued to see “the flattening of the curve”.

While many hospitality and tourism heavyweights are calling for borders to open up faster, it seems interstate travellers are taking advantage of Queensland’s mostly-opened borders.

Destination Gold Coast chairman Paul Donovan said there had been an upswing in bookings since the last border decision was made, and that it was good to see customer numbers “finally increasing”.