Queensland: no quarantine-free overseas travel until 2022

Boy, Anna & Co. sure know how to drag out and milk a pandemic for all it's worth. Even when the overwhelming majority would've had their shots and are travel-ready, according to previously agreed national standards. John Dahlberg-Acton got it right when he said "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

90%. Like Darth Vader said in The Empire Strikes Back, ‘I am altering the deal, pray I don’t alter it any further’ .

A plan of action is well over due. But this 90% cap might not be possible, recent survey suggested 13% will not take up the vaccine. So QLD might not get to 90%. 80% for December so thats another 2 months at least before the 90 may come in. I was looking at BNE to SIN early Jan but will hold off now due to this announcement. 

There is also doubt about whether Qld will ever be able to reach the 90% mark. Polls in Qld fairly consistently show about 13% of adults saying they will not get vaccinated. Why Annastacia thinks it's acceptable to reneg on the 80% figure she had agreed to originally, I have no idea.

As a whole of life Queenslander, I have grave doubts that we will ever reach the 90% double vaccination threshold. There is, currently, far too much hesitancy, and even outright hostility towards vaccination to make such a number possible. Just have a look at our dwindling daily first doses.

I also doubt that, even if we have a serious outbreak, we will see the 90% hurdle reached, such is the rusted-on anti-vax attitude of many of my fellow Queenslanders, which has, in part, been framed, in my local area, by the mutterings of an outgoing politician. 

What happens then? If the hurdle isn’t reached, inbound (and inevitably outbound) international travel to Queensland will cease to exist. In that respect, I’m in lock step with BAC and thank them for for injecting some well thought out comments into the debate.

So glad to be a Sydneysider.

I do like the placement of the Also Read story about Qatar looking for more flights to BNE, directly below the quote from the Airport Corporation saying airlines would abandon the airport.

Which one is it?

so qlders can depart overseas from 18 December & it they come back sometime in January, will probably be no quarantine at all & how on earth would anyone be able to police home quarantine anyway ? Seriously. Even many Labor voters in Qld want Anna gone & CHO is just as bad.

Agree with the above that Qld will find it difficult to get much above 80%, let alone 90%.

This is what happens, when politics gets mixed up in business or bureaucrats trying to manipulate policy, without any discussion of stake holders.

How are they going to check if sydney siders or melburnians have travelled overseas prior? It was easy when they had 2 flights per day. It won't be easy or smart to check thousands of domestic travellers and their overseas travel history.

This is beyond BS. If they had nominated December 17th for no hotel or home quarantine, they would saved themselves this embarrassment. I live in QLD, not so sure how to say it publically anymore. 

Do not rule out certain LGA still being excluded anyway, places like Nth Qld with low vaccination rates may still require quarantine and places like Cairns may well be punished for having low vaccination rates in the communities around it. One thing people are finally starting to learn with the Qld premier, don’t listen to what she says, look at what she does. 

Hello Queenslanders, unfortunately we live in an utterly backward State in every respect, except for sports, and happy to be looked upon as being laid back. The truth of the matter is that many of us have moved up from the South because of the weather, and are far from laid back. Those of us from the South wish to travel overseas ASAP, whilst the laid back version of Queensland prefer to have their holidays in their own back yard. This does damn all for the economy, and hard to get it through their skulls that we need to open the borders to all in sundry that have been double vaxed. For those not vaxed, holiday in your backyard.

It's a sad state of affairs in this country that there's even the remote possibility ABF would be checking on peoples LGA..

I was just talking to someone in Qld that had to wait 4 hours for an ambulance, makes myself understand why they don’t want a covid outbreak.

To throw a different perspective on the international timeline for QLD'rs, I've been following the Covid Live website (which shows daily vaccinations and projections based on a rolling seven day average).

Queensland is due to hit 90% before Christmas - around Dec 13 - and 95% first dose by Dec 28.

Again, these are real numbers based on seven day dosages administered. I've been following the website for months and 2022 has never come into play. Add political pressure to that, and I think you'll see international borders flung open sooner.