Community & Business
26 May, 2020
OPINION: All hail the great profit
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has been copping a lot of pressure to reopen the Queensland Border.
Last week Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was copping a lot of pressure to reopen the Queensland Border.
Most of this pressure was coming from the New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian.
Of course, why wouldn’t people from down south want to come to Queensland for the holidays, we have warmer weather, lots to see and do and next to no cases of COVID-19.
According to Minister Mark Bailey, the Palaszczuk Government won't be dictated to by “The worst performing state in Australia for COVID”
“There are 33 times the number of active cases in NSW compared to QLD”
Lately, I’ve seen a few on-line petitions come across my social media feed demanding that the government reopen gyms and tattooists.
I understand that people are hurting, businesses are struggling and lockdown is hard, but how many deaths are we willing to cop for economic reasons.
Compare the numbers.
*NSW has 381 active cases versus QLD’s 12.
NSW still has on average 2 new cases per day, QLD is averaging zero.
NSW has had 50 COVID-19 related deaths, QLD has had 6.
Letting one case loose in our communities would be like throwing a pebble in a pond, the ripples travel far and wide.
Imagine you own a gym/tattooist/pub and you prematurely open your business and your actions causes someone to die.
How would you feel?
Or what about if it was the other way around.
Someone sneaks over the border from NSW and due to that fact, your mum or dad passes away.
I see that Pauline Hanson is planning on taking the State Government to court for the so-called “unconstitutional border closing”
Pauline said, “You've got communities that are dying, we need the tourists from down south coming up through Queensland.”
If we allow busloads of tourists from down south to start visiting, Pauline really will see communities dying in a more literal sense of the word.
What we are being asked to choose between is profits over people.
Do we let the state go broke and then slowly restart the economy with next to no deaths or do we allow busloads of tourists to arrive, while we allow Queensland residents to start dying?
A lot of retirees in our communities moved to Far North Queensland, to get away from the rat race, to enjoy better weather and health conditions in the twilight of their lives, are we willing to take that away from them?
Some people have stated that health should not be the only concern when it comes to opening the border.
Once again this is putting profit before people. The decision to keep the borders closed isn’t choosing between profit or people, it's choosing between life and death.
*All figures correct at time of printing
