QLD vax rates need to go up to shore up economy and making the jab compulsory would work: Deloitte

Queensland should mandate the Covid vaccine or face seeing its bright economic future go to waste, according to a new report.

Queensland’s post-pandemic economic future is bright but will go to waste if the state doesn’t quickly get its Covid-19 vaccination rates up, according to a new report.

One way to get jab rates up nationally, according to the Deloitte report, is to implement “general mandate orders” — a politically sensitive move that the accounting and advisory firm believes Queensland should make.

But as Queensland’s jab rates continue to lag behind most of the country, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has held off on setting an opening date despite health experts saying a road map could spur people to get vaccinated.

According to Deloitte Access Economic’s latest business outlook report, the Sunshine State has had “great success” in shutting out the virus and this has delivered big benefits, including the lowest unemployment in a decade and a housing construction boom.

At the same time border closures are hurting Queensland more than other “Covid-free” states, the tourism industry is stretched thin, and vaccine hesitancy and complacency is high.

Economist Chris Richardson, in the report, stated jabs were Australia’s ticket out of the pandemic, and if Queensland remained a “laggard”, the positive of the “state’s outlook will quickly dwindle”.

“You don’t want “Covid-free” to be driving complacency (on getting the jab) that sees you end up behind the rest of the world,” he said.

While Victoria and NSW recorded 1890 and 477 local cases of Covid-19 respectively and a total of seven deaths on Sunday, Queensland marked its fifth straight day of zero community acquired cases. The state recorded two cases in hotel quarantine.

About 70 per cent of Queensland’s population aged 16 and older have received one dose of the jab, while 52 per cent are fully vaccinated — far behind the national average of 82.2 per cent and 61.9 per cent.

Opting not to make the jab compulsory for a large slice of the population would mean “fewer jabs” and thus “fewer jobs”, according to Deloitte.

Deloitte Access Economics director Chris Richardson. Picture: AAP Image/Mick Tsikas

Queensland also remains one of the only jurisdictions without a clear road map out of Covid-19, with the Premier on Sunday saying the state will open up “when it is safe to do so”.

“The key is vaccination, so we will open up when it’s safe to do so, when every eligible Queenslander has had that opportunity to get a vaccine,” she said.

“We know at some stage Covid is going to come into this state, there may be another outbreak … (and) we need to be ready.”

Queensland’s state clinics this week ran its second “Super Pfizer Weekend”, administering about 25,000 jabs on Saturday.

Mr Richardson said getting the opening phase of Queensland right was “vital” as the state had the “opportunity” to be one of the few places in the world to go from “Covid-free” to living with the virus with the “least disruption possible”.

“Covid-free is genuinely magnificent, it gives a strong economy and I’d swap for it in a heartbeat, but it is not the way of the future,” he said.

“The way of the future is vaccinations … as many as possible, as fast as possible.

“All Australians should want domestic borders to fall when the time is right, but optimal timing may be different for some states than others.”

Nationally, Deloitte found the economic situation for the tourism sector remained “downright dire” and there remained “plenty of unknowns around travel in a “living-with-Covid” world.

The company’s boffins believe international travel will be “very weak” in 2022 due to ongoing quarantine requirements that were likely “to remain for most incoming travellers for some time”.

New South Wales will be the first Australian jurisdiction to welcome back international arrivals in drives, with its state government on Sunday sending its strongest signal yet it plans to resume international travel ahead of the national road map.

Vaccinated people in NSW will emerge from lockdown on Monday, after 106 days in lockdown, after the state hit its 70 per cent double jabbed milestone. Only those that have received both doses of the jab will be allowed freedoms like heading to the gym or having a beer at the pub.

Originally published as QLD vax rates need to go up to shore up economy and making the jab compulsory would work: Deloitte