Scott Morrison urges Qld, WA, SA to reopen state borders to boost tourism

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has pointed to July as being a “great month”, after copping criticism over closing their borders.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has ramped up calls for state leaders to set a border opening timetable with coronavirus infections at low levels.

The federal government is applying fresh pressure on states to restart interstate travel amid calls for more help to be directed to aviation.

“We need to get planes flying around Australia,” Mr Morrison told parliament.

“If you want to see planes flying around Australia, we need to open up these domestic borders.”

But Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk pushed back on Thursday, arguing her government was sticking by the road map released by the Federal Government – and that her priority is the health and safety of her state.

“There is no dissent on this … he [Scott Morrison] has said July, I have said July,” the Premier told reporters.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said July will be Queenslands month. Picture: Steve Pohlner

“I will always put the health of Queenslanders first and I make no apology for putting the health of Queenslanders first.”

Ms Palaszczuk said that as soon as the border restrictions were lifted for her state, she will be encouraging more flights into Queensland to boost tourism.

“June is Queensland open for Queenslanders,” she said. “July will definitely see more of Queensland opening up … so I expect to see more people if our health response continues as it is.

“There will be more people in restaurants and cafes … more people in activities and in stadiums. So July is going to be a very good month for Queensland.”

The Queensland premier has faced extensive criticism over keeping the state borders closed, especially after her government denied the move had created financial hardship for businesses.

“The purpose of the border restrictio­n direction is to protect persons within Queensland from the health risks associated with COVID-19,” their defence document, which were presented to the High Court, read.

Michael Hart MP unveils a new Gold Coast billboard campaign to urge the government to reopen the borders. Picture Glenn Hampson

Earlier this week, State Member for Burleigh Heads, Michael Hart, took the fight to reopen the borders to the sky – by installing a giant billboard pleading with the Queensland government to reopen to borders, or cost the state more jobs.

It’s the second billboard in as many weeks to be launched against the Premier, who is standing firm on the border closure despite reporting zero cases in the past 24 hours.

Mr Hart said it was time to start considering jobs, especially within the tourism industry, which on the Gold Coast alone is bleeding around 310 million each month.

According to a National Visitor Survey from Tourism Research Australia, southern visitors heading to Queensland spent three times more than intrastate travellers ($374 million) in the July quarter last year.

The survey shows 2.2 million interstate and 4.3 million intrastate visitors pumped $3.7 billion into the Queensland economy during that time. Overall, the research showed just how much the state relies on interstate aviation – a mounting concern for Deloitte, who are currently overseeing bids for Virgin Australia.

According to AAP, the administrators are concerned potential buyers may not proceed without guarantees of continued support.

But Mr Morrison is adamant certainty around domestic travel increasing will be more important.

“If we’re concerned about Virgin employees, it is very important that we open up the domestic borders in this country,” he said.

He wants premiers to nominate a July date, in line with National Cabinet’s target for the third stage of eased restrictions.

The Prime Minister wants premiers to nominate a July reopening date. Picture: Rick Rycroft/AP

Labor’s transport spokeswoman Catherine King dismissed concerns about borders, saying the JobKeeper wage subsidy scheme needed to be extended beyond the September cut-off.

“We’re now almost in the 11th hour and we’re yet to see any response from the Government at all to the Virgin administrators, let alone to the 16,000 workers and their families who rely on Virgin,” she told reporters.

JOBKEEPER MOVE FAILS

A move to extend JobKeeper to university workers failed in the Senate on Wednesday evening.

Greens senator Mehreen Faruqi said parliament should reverse the malicious move to exclude up to 30,000 workers.

“With the stroke of a pen the Government could reverse their absurd exclusion of university from this program and begin the hard work of protecting the sector,” Dr Faruqi told the Upper House.

The motion was defeated 31 votes to 30.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison has put the hard word on state premiers. Picture: Mick Tsikas/AAP

Mr Morrison has left the door open to removing other sectors from JobKeeper when it announces the finding of a review on July 23.

“Where there is a better way to do things, we won’t step aside from doing them in a better way,” he said.

There were seven new coronavirus cases reported across Australia on Wednesday, four in Victoria and three in NSW.

The average national daily increase has been at 0.06 over the past three days. Just 20 people remain in hospital with the disease, three of whom are in intensive care.

While 102 people have died in Australia from coronavirus, more than 6740 of the 7276 diagnosed have recovered.
– with AAP