Commonsense communication

While striving to safeguard against risks as power is restored amid torrential rain, Premier David Crisafulli is giving southeast Queenslanders plenty of sensible leeway to decide whether to venture out on public transport on Monday or to send their children to school if it is open. As he says, parents know their children’s school and the journeys involved.

They, not the government, are best placed to decide.

On Friday, as Cyclone Alfred stalled, Flight Centre boss Graham Turner had a point when he slammed what he said was the “premature shutdown”, which cost businesses millions of dollars.

Enterprising outlets that stayed open in afternoon sunshine reaped a windfall. For others, concentrating on preparations was far more important given the hardships that unfolded on Saturday and Sunday.

Some fools, such as those rollicking in dangerous surf and putting rescuers’ lives at risk, need a dose of common sense.

But most people have plenty of it.

As questions – including on topics as asinine as whether people could get a coffee – were posed to the Premier in recent days, his factual style was a welcome departure from the political dramatisation of disaster seen in previous crises, including the Covid pandemic.