Queensland’ Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk held a press conference last week in the virtually unused Brisbane International Cruise Terminal to announce that the state’s shut-down cruising industry could be brought back to life.
According to the Brisbane Times, she announced that the terminal, in Pinkenba near the airport, would host a new vaccination centre, which would open seven days a week and cater particularly to port, airline and other employees of industries in the area, although it would also be open to the public.
The $177 million cruise terminal was expected to be a glittering prize in Brisbane’s tourism industry with an opening date of October 2020 but when the coronavirus pandemic hit, the cruising industry was shut down, with the first ship to dock was the Navy’s HMAS Choules last month.
But at the same time, Ms Palaszczuk said the state government would work with the cruising industry to allow some Queensland-based small cruise holidays from next year when the vaccination rates hit 80 per cent, saying, “I’ll put that to national cabinet as well, but I honestly think that is a great option for Queenslanders who are fully vaccinated to actually trial some smaller cruises up and down the Queensland coast, demonstrating what appears to be a lack of understanding of cruising she also added. “We’re a few months off that, of course, but we need to start the planning.” [Image credit: The Australian]
In June 2020, Queensland Health extended its ban on foreign-flagged cruise ships entering state waters until the end of the public health emergency, while the Australian Border Force also issued a ban.
Ms Palaszczuk also cast some doubt on whether Queenslanders would be allowed to travel overseas by Christmas, after federal Tourism Minister Dan Tehan said the international border would be reopened by Christmas “at the latest”, saying in what appeared to be a rather brusque manner, “Where are you going to go? Are you going to go to India? In Tokyo, you have to sit in perspex screens with masks on and if you remove your mask you can’t talk while you’re eating,” she said.
She added, “Yes in Europe some people are travelling, I think the federal government needs to identify very clearly, what are the countries Australians can travel to.
She also said, “Queenslanders would probably enjoy greater freedoms travelling around Queensland than if they hopped on a plane and went to Tokyo.”
Asked what freedoms Queenslanders would experience once the vaccination rate hit 80 per cent, Ms Palaszczuk said the national plan would actually take the state “backwards”, adding, “I don’t want that for Queensland, so we’re probably going to see a difference for Western Australia and Queensland because at the moment we have freedoms,” and “The national plan hasn’t been finalised. Eighty per cent will mean different things to different states.”
Ms Palaszczuk also would not say whether Queenslanders would be allowed to travel to Sydney and Melbourne by Christmas, adding, “At the moment, in Melbourne, they’ll be having 30 people over to Christmas dinner, they’re not talking about travelling to Western Australia or Queensland or NSW,” adding, “In New South Wales, you have a massive Delta outbreak, so you have to go and ask the New South Wales government what is their plan for Christmas?”
Oh dear, what can one say?
A report by John Alwyn-Jones, Cruise Editor, reporting from what appears to be the independent nation of Queensland!
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