Coronavirus: Open borders now, says VIP alliance

Prominent voices in economics, politics, the law and business have called for a return to open borders in Australia.

‘The frustration is we don’t have a date’: Tourism Palm Cove president Richard Hewitson. at a deserted Palm Cove, north of Cairns. Picture: Brian Cassey

Prominent voices in economics, politics, the law and business have called on Scott Morrison and state and territory leaders to immediately lift barriers to interstate ­travel, saying the shutdown is ­destroying more lives than it is saving.

Their call coincides with renewed concern over the damage the border lockdown is causing to far north Queensland, with local tourism and accommodation businesses reporting they have had ­little or no income since March.

They fear that even if Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk agrees to reopen the Queensland border at the end of June, they will still miss out on the crucial July school holiday period as people wait until they are certain they will be free to travel before booking flights.

A group of 29 economic and political figures, which includes economics professors Paul Frijters and Gigi Foster, former Queensland premier Campbell Newman and finance associate professor James Doran, has written an open letter insisting all governments needed to broaden their sources of advice about how to respond to COVID-19.

They also urge governments to rethink how they can be more transparent in their responses to future health emergencies, including allowing public release of the modelling they rely on to make decisions.

The group, convened by the Australia Institute for Progress think tank, also calls for more ­parliamentary involvement in ­decisions and broader information on non-pandemic deaths.

“Decisions have been made that are opaque and not subject to normal democratic scrutiny,” the letter states.

“Goalposts appear to have been changed, but this redirection, and the reasons behind it, have not been adequately shared with the community.”

Convener Graham Young said there had ceased to be a health emergency and now was the time to look forward.

“It’s hard to estimate the cost in lives from the COVID lockdown, but we may have prevented around 10,000 premature deaths in mostly elderly Australians, at a cost which includes 10,000 shortened due to untreated cancer (and) 750 to 1500 due to suicide,” he said.

“In the first instance, a lockdown was a rational defensive move in response to an unknown pandemic, but it appears that as more data become available, the avenues of advice to the governments of Australia were too narrow to evolve the best strategies.”

Tourism officials have estimated that far north Queensland is sustaining economic damage of $10m a day while the borders remain closed to holiday visitors.

The managing director of Cairns-based Pinnacle Tourism Marketing, Michael Nelson, said winter was crucial to the far north.

“That’s our marketing: when it is cold down south, we are warm still,” he said.

However, he said his client list of small and medium-sized local businesses was reliant on a rapid lifting of travel restrictions across Australia.

“The window of opportunity is massively shrinking,” he said.

He said Ms Palaszczuk’s suggestion that it may not be until September before the borders reopened had an “immediate effect” on forward bookings, with operators reporting cancellations and bookings disappearing.

“People are aligning their thinking about holidays with the dialogue coming out of the government, no question,” he said.

Richard Hewitson, president of Tourism Palm Cove, said operators were reporting that inquiries about accommodation were climbing every day “but the frustration is we don’t have a date”.

“Also, we have no time to prepare when they do decide to open up because they might not give any notice,” he said.

Mossman-based indigenous tour operator Juan Walker is hoping to attract family groups to his Walkabout Cultural Adventures business by the middle of this month once he has a COVID-safe plan approved by health ­authorities.

“Hopefully, we don’t see a spike in COVID cases because everything will be shut down again.”