WENDELL HUSSEY | Cadet | CONTACT
After 18 long months, our state’s tourism industry has confirmed today that they have kinda had enough of this whole closed borders thing.
With the JobKeeper supplement winding up as people outside of the industry return to a normal life, the people who make a living from tourism say they are ready to be part of the nation again.
“The end of JobKeeper signalled the end of this long-running joke for me,” explained the owner of a Queensland Adventure Group, who has requested anonymity for fear of reprisals.
“I’ve had to lay off a bunch of people and I don’t know if I’ll be able to keep this thing up if we don’t open up this summer,” he said.
“Don’t get me wrong, I fucking hate the southern people as much as the next hot-blooded Queenslander.”
“But we can’t go on like this,” he said.
His comments come as Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk continues to refuse to confirm when she will open the Queensland border, after surging to an election victory off the back of staying shut.
With the nation eyeing off bubbles with the likes of New Zealand, Fiji, Japan, England, and Korea, the financially drained tourism operators in places like Queensland have pleaded for interstate travel to be opened up.
“I know it’s easy for the people who work on building sites and in offices to carry on about staying shit and fuck everyone from Sydney and Melbourne,” continued the tourism operator we spoke to.
“But they have lot’s of money those people, and we’d like to have them back up here again.”
“Just tell people they’ve got 4 weeks to get jabbed and we are throwing this border open again.”
“Please.”
“If not for me, for the sake of Christmas.”
