Announcement on borders to be made by Friday: Palaszczuk
Queenslanders will know whether the state‘s borders will reopen to NSW by the day before the QLD election.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has promised voters will know by election eve if the border with NSW will be reopened next week.
Campaigning in north Queensland, Ms Palaszczuk said a decision would be announced by Friday on whether the state would go ahead with a “road map” proposal to reopen on November 1, which was dependent on the level of community transmissions in NSW.
The road map had initially proposed an October 22 deadline to reassess community transmission, but Ms Palaszczuk has delayed an announcement to wait for Queensland Health advice.
Asked about the looming decision and whether there was enough time for people to prepare, Ms Palaszczuk said: “Everybody will know by Friday.”
Both Ms Palaszczuk and her rival, Liberal National Party leader Deb Frecklington are continuing their blitz of regional Queensland ahead of Saturday’s election. Both leaders ventured into enemy territory on Monday in a last-ditch attempt to turn voters in key electorates.
The Premier has been more conservative, sandbagging Labor’s three seats in Townsville before heading south into the Liberal National Party’s marginal seat of Burdekin.
Ms Frecklington adopted a more aggressive approach, targeting Labor electorates in Townsville, Cairns and Mackay, where the LNP is hopeful of a historic victory. She continued her familiar focus on crime and the state’s poor economic performance in a bid to convince voters to elect an LNP government she says would be more favourable to regional Queensland.
“In relation to the LNP getting all around this great state of ours, I’ll say this: there are 209,000 Queenslanders out of work and our politicians should be working harder,” Ms Frecklington said.
The LNP leader used her fourth visit to Townsville during the election campaign to announce $14m in funding to tackle drug crime and indigenous disadvantage in northern Queensland, including a $2m partnership with the North Queensland Cowboys rugby league team to help disaffected youths from “high-risk communities”.
She said drug problems had been exacerbated under the Palaszczuk government. “The scourge of ice, the scourge of crime across our great state has got worse, because we know the Palaszczuk Labor government are soft on crime,” she said.
At a mango farm in Burdekin, where she announced a $50m plan to reduce water costs for irrigators by 50 per cent, Ms Palaszczuk pleaded with voters not to “risk” an LNP government, warning that the outcome of the election would be very close.
“Queenslanders need to know this election is on a knife-edge,” she said. “It’s up to the good people of this state to decide — will they will stick with me and our strong health response and our clear path to economic recovery or will they risk all of that with Deb Frecklington and the LNP.”
Burdekin, held by Dale Last, is the LNP’s most marginal electorate on 0.8 per cent and withstood a strong challenge from Labor’s Mike Brunker in 2017. LNP strategists say they are confident of holding it, and in a sign of confidence, Ms Frecklington has not visited during the campaign.
She said the Premier’s announcement in Burdekin less than a week out from polling day was a “desperate” attempt to win votes in the regions.
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