Coronavirus: Reef veteran pleads with Annastacia Palaszczuk to open borders now

Great Barrier Reef operator Alan Wallish has called on Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk to relax the borders and save his family business.

Bonnie Martin, centre, the crew of Passions of Paradise and operator Alan Wallish, right, are keeping everything shipshape despite having no tourist clients. Picture: Brian Cassey

Passions of Paradise tour operator Alan Wallish has lashed Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s “military-style” border closures, saying he faces losing his boat and his loyal staff if the state doesn’t reopen soon.

The Great Barrier Reef veteran has not made a single dollar in revenue since the end of March and has called on Ms Palaszczuk to relax the borders and save his family business.

“All we get is military-type instructions. They say we won’t open till September. Who makes a decision like that? Where does this three months come from?” Mr Wallish told The Australian.

“We shut down to make sure the hospitals weren’t swamped but the virus is past, that won’t happen now … you can’t have one government and one doctor saying something different than the other. If we open in September, we’ve lost our most important months of the tourism cycle … all that is really keeping us all together is the JobKeeper.”

Mr Wallish, 63, is one of hundreds of Cairns tourism operators hammered by the COVID-19 crisis and Ms Palaszczuk’s insistence that the borders remain closed.

“This is hitting everyone in this town. Cairns may seem a long way away from Brisbane but it’s not. There’s a human face to this,” he said.

The Passions of Paradise has continuously taken people out to the Reef throughout the global financial crisis of 2008, the recession of the early 1990s and a number of airline pilot strikes.

It is still sailing once a week as Mr Wallish and his team of 23 staff members try to keep their sense of purpose. “We go out to the Reef on our own cost. We do a bit of site maintenance, a bit of reef regrowth. It keeps the crew moving along. But these are young, vibrant people. They want tourists. They want to do their job and show domestic and international tourists the Reef.”