- Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk welcomes a submission on lifting recreational travel restrictions within North Queensland and widening the existing Outback travel bubble
- Member for Townsville Scott Stewart MP supports the proposal
- Premier comments on the recommendation and that it "sounds very feasible"
- Townsville Enterprise CEO Patricia O'Callaghan speaks to Peter Gleeson on 'Sky News across Australia' at 7:20pm tonight on reopening North Queensland
We welcome the opportunity to submit a formal proposal to the Premier and Chief Health Officer (CHO) further outlining the urgent need for the existing Outback travel bubble to extend across North Queensland. We also welcome Member for Townsville Scott Stewart's advocacy on this issue with the Premier and support for the proposal.
This opportunity is off the back of last Saturday's call to arms with our neighbouring Regional Tourism Organisations (RTOs) representing the Cairns, Whitsundays, Mackay, and Outback regions, urging the State Government to lift the restriction on recreational travel and widen the existing Outback travel boundary to support flailing businesses and jobs in the North.
Up until the Premier's press conference on Saturday 23 May, for any regional reopening to be considered we had been instructed by the Chief Health Officer (CHO) that the region had to meet the health requirement of recording no new COVID-19 cases for two incubation periods (28 days), which the region has surpassed. This requirement has been frequently stated by the CHO. But since Saturday we now welcome the opportunity to submit a proposal based on the government's own Road Map to Recovery.
Our rationale is that because North Queensland doesn't have the population density that the likes of the Gold Coast and Brisbane can draw upon, it is unrealistic and economically unviable to place the same set of rules on North Queensland as the South East. In a vastly dispersed region like North Queensland the most telling impracticality is the 250 kilometre recreational travel restriction, which if not lifted could be the death knell for thousands of businesses depending on regional and intrastate school holiday visitation.
Along with our fellow RTOs, the recommendations we are putting forward are based upon the Queensland Government's Recovery Road Map that's currently in place. Suggestions include widening the Outback travel restrictions to include North Queensland and fast-track the plan, bringing forward stages due to the dramatically lower infection rate in North Queensland. The current Recovery Road Map was based upon the best health advice and we are simply requesting the government to take into consideration that the north is in a different situation to the south and with that, requires different parameters in recovery.
Today we welcome the below comments from Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, on the subject of potentially lifting North Queensland travel restrictions, during her daily press conference:
"On the face of it, it sounds very feasible. So I've asked them to submit that plan to government and we'll be able to get them a decision by the end of the month as we review things at the end of this month. More than happy to speak to them as well. I understand they are formulating a plan and I look forward to seeing that plan. Sensible and measured steps is what we're looking for here."
North Queensland has proven we can be COVID safe, and now we must be economically safe and protect the thousands of jobs and businesses at risk across the region. We're not asking the Premier to reinvent the wheel. Government can stick to the plan, but by taking into account the unique differences and recovery requirements between the top and the bottom of the State.
Sensible and measured steps is what the Premier today asked for and we believe the Reopening North Queensland proposal is the step in the right direction to get North Queensland back to business in a sensible and measured way.
We thank the many businesses and people of North Queensland who have responded to the call to #reopenNQ
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