This was published 3 years ago
'Serves no purpose': Tourism industry warns of damage with closed state borders
By David Crowe
Tourism groups have pushed back against the idea of waiting until September for Queensland to relax its border controls with southern states, warning the damage to their $150 billion industry could not be justified when coronavirus case numbers were falling.
The industry called on Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and other leaders to honour a national cabinet agreement to ease the restrictions by the middle of the year barring an outbreak that reversed the progress against COVID-19.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk is facing pressure from the tourism industry to lift the state border as soon as possible.Credit: AAP
Trade and Tourism Minister Simon Birmingham made no criticism of Ms Palaszczuk for suggesting the September timetable but said all states should relax their controls if the current trends continued.
"If one or two states were to hold out, then they will be answerable to their tourism industry and will ultimately need to provide additional support to that industry," Senator Birmingham said.
The Queensland government's stated roadmap on restrictions suggests the border controls could be lifted in July "subject to further planning and review" but Ms Palaszczuk warned on Monday of a later timeframe.
"I would say that things would look more positive towards September," she told ABC TV.
"Having said that, I do not want to rule anything out – I will give you that advice at the end of May, as quickly as possible."
Australian Tourism Industry Council executive director Simon Westaway said the industry would like to see state and territory governments "align with the spirit" of the national cabinet roadmap to remove border controls no later than mid-year.
"It serves no purpose for a scattered and long drawn out approach to the removal of state and territory borders," he said, given the results in containing the virus.
"If it is good enough to have a beer or a meal in a socially distant setting across all states and territories, it surely is good enough to have clearly-articulated and declared dates for hard border lifting."
Queensland Tourism Industry Council chief Daniel Gschwind said the sector was "taken by surprise" by Ms Palaszczuk's remarks and wanted the state to return to its earlier plan to open the borders in July.
"We certainly hope that the health situation will give authorities enough confidence to open borders and manage any risk rationally and reasonably," Mr Gschwind said.
"July would be fine with us, and that was the roadmap that was released, and the Premier's left it all open, as far as I understand, by saying 'we are reviewing the restrictions at the end of every month'.
"We hope that even at the end of May the forward-looking plans would still include the possibility of opening the borders in July."
Visit Sunshine Coast chief Simon Latchford also said the Premier should review the situation if COVID-19 cases continued to be minimal.
"Naturally we'd like the border opened up as early as possible because the southern states can really revitalise our market, but equally we understand the Premier's desire to minimise the health risk," he said.
Commonwealth deputy chief medical officer Paul Kelly said the state border controls were not based on any advice from peak medical experts to the national cabinet and were instead the result of state initiatives.
"At the national level, we've never suggested that internal borders within Australia should be closed," he said.
"When you look at what's happening now with just very few cases, only just over 100 cases in the last week, and only 11 in the last 24 hours, I think that things have changed a lot. But that'll be a decision for those states that have closed borders."
The Australian Industry Group warned last month of the cost of the Queensland border restrictions and the "fairly chaotic and unilateral way" the controls were applied on companies doing business across state lines.
The Queensland government bans arrivals from other states unless the travellers gain an exemption and a Queensland Entry Pass.
South Australia and Tasmania order travellers to self-quarantine for 14 days.
The Western Australian government says its interstate border closure is expected to be the "final restriction lifted" in its roadmap, with no date on when that will be.
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