Editorial: Timing of restriction easing very convenient
You don’t have to be a cynic to think the timing of Queensland’s border opening and the easing of restrictions does look a little too politically convenient just weeks out from the state election, writes The Editor.
Opinion
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THE light on the hill is suddenly shining far more brightly as, after a coronavirus-inspired year from hell, the state government lays out the road map for easing restrictions and opening the border.
Queensland will open its borders on November 1 provided there are no unlinked cases over the preceding 28 days.
The highly detailed COVID-Safe plan released yesterday allows for people with valid border declaration passes to bypass a mandatory fortnight in quarantine from November 1, while the family home will be able to throw open the doors to 40 people by the same date if all goes well.
Even the wedding dancefloors, which have looked rather forlorn over the past few months, could once again be swinging with up to 40 people.
And Christmas celebrations are looking even more positive with up to 50 people allowed in homes and public spaces by December 1, provided there is no renewed breakout of the virus.
This marvellous news will be greeted with a massive sigh of relief across the state as business operators see the possibility of a reasonable summer trading season beginning to emerge.
Tourism operators are particularly overjoyed, as they should be, given they bore the economic brunt of this disease.
Queensland Tourism Industry Council chief executive Daniel Gschwind said the government road map provides the clarity the industry has desperately sought, and expressed the hope bookings would stream in just in time for the most lucrative period of the year which is, of course, the Christmas school holidays.
Add to this yesterday’s news from the Federal Government that flights will be allowed into Australia from New Zealand by mid-October and the future shines even brighter for tourism.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk yesterday urged everyone to continue social distancing, and took a little self-congratulatory bow by declaring; “we’ve been able to do more things in Queensland because we have taken proactive steps’’.
Like in four other states, the Premier and the Chief Health Officer have contained the virus and deserve a nod of recognition.
But while they provided the guidance, it was ordinary Queenslanders who did the hard yards. It was the people of Queensland who uncomplainingly (in most cases, even if there were disappointing exceptions) kept the strict social distancing guidelines as they shopped and worked and socialised.
Queenslanders even kept true to the restrictions as they laid to rest their loved ones after sombre ceremonies in sparsely populated churches.
But you don’t have to be a cynic to question the timing of this announcement given that Queenslanders head to the polls at the end of October.
It does seem a wonderful coincidence for the ruling Labor Party that the Premier will go into campaign mode next Tuesday on the back of positive news that, the very day after the election, our long awaited freedom begins to kick in.
The Premier has done what every professional politician does, which is to never let a crisis go to waste. But even as Ms Palaszczuk fronted the cameras for the nightly news bulletins with coronavirus updates she knew full well she was cultivating an image as our saviour – an image which would, quite naturally, work to her advantage in this month’s election.
The timing of the border opening and the easing of restrictions does look a little too politically convenient, but we’re hardly going to complain.
Originally published as Editorial: Timing of restriction easing very convenient