National interest must be put ahead of parochialism

In August last year Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was responsible for one of the low points of Australia’s pandemic response. Pandering to the parochialism of some Queenslanders, she said people living in NSW had NSW hospitals and in Queensland “we have Queensland hospitals for our people”. Now Ms Palaszczuk and her Health Minister, Yvette D’Ath, have put parochialism ahead of the national interest again by refusing to scrap the state’s arduous pre-arrival PCR test for interstate visitors from designated “hotspots” of NSW, Victoria and the ACT. The requirement is crippling testing lines in those jurisdictions, forcing holiday-makers to queue for hours alongside patients with Covid symptoms. The procedure is due to be replaced on Saturday with rapid antigen testing. A more rational state government would have scrapped the PCR test rule by now, one of the biggest tourism weeks of the year. It should do so immediately. About 440,000 people already have applied to enter Queensland since its border reopened a fortnight ago.

At the same time, thankfully, and in its own interests because of overcrowding at its testing centres, Queensland has dropped the requirement that visitors to the state and returning residents undertake a PCR test on day five of their stay. The state’s chief health officer, John Gerrard, revealed that only 0.6 per cent of people tested on day five had tested positive. The test was “not contributing in any way to the safety of Queenslanders”, Dr Gerrard acknowledged.

With Omicron now the dominant Covid variant in Queensland, it is important to put the extent of the threat it poses into perspective. While the state has 4779 active Covid cases, with 1158 diagnosed in the past 24 hours, only 89 patients are in hospital. None of them is in intensive care.

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet appealed to Ms Palaszczuk to be reasonable about the PCR tests required to enter Queensland. “It is putting people in lengthy queues that are not necessary,” he said. “We obviously would continue to ask here in NSW for our people who are going to Queensland on holidays – at a great time of year, the first time in a long time we’re able to see family again and holiday across the country – please can you reconsider that decision.”

As the nation continues to make the transition out of the pandemic, all state and territory authorities must be vigilant to ensure testing regimes and medical services serve the public interest and that of the nation. Mr Perrottet was correct on Tuesday when he said pregnant women should not be waiting in long Covid-19 testing queues. The surge in demand for testing has left pathologists and NSW Health staff overwhelmed and struggling to process tests, causing days of waiting for results. Visiting the Wagga Wagga hospital, Mr Perrottet said people should be having PCR tests only if they were feeling unwell or if NSW Health had contacted them and asked them to do so. The state recorded 6062 new Covid-19 cases and one new death on Tuesday. Of 557 Covid patients in hospital, 60 were in intensive care.

The “travel test” requirements to enter Queensland, Tasmania and the Northern Territory also are playing havoc in the ACT, where authorities have tried to limit such testing. On Monday, when 189 positive cases were recorded, major testing sites were closed in Canberra for four hours to help patients more likely to have Covid.

For all the unwieldy state entry rules, hundreds of thousands of people desperate for a holiday and to reunite with families and friends are braving the chaos. However inconvenient, Australians “must not give up these hard-earned gains with an over-reaction to the Omicron variant”, as Josh Frydenberg says. But some need to show more common sense and compassion in smoothing the way.