Queensland still closed

Cloudy dawn at Terrigal today

Julie and I were hanging out for the Queensland premier's promised end-month announcement about the easing of COVID-19 restrictions yesterday, but were disappointed to hear their border will remain closed for at least another month.  That pretty much guarantees we will not embark on our planned bike trip around Australia this year, and maybe that colours my views on the border closure.

Looking across The Haven to Terrigal this morning

Queensland claims this is a decision based on health advice, and I can understand that they are keen to keep their new COVID-19 cases at zero, but I fear the decision-making process is also being influenced by political considerations.  A state election is due later this year, and a recent poll showed that 78% of Queenslanders support the border closure.  Queenslanders have traditionally been suspicious of southerners ("Mexicans") and possess an independent streak, so the advice of their Chief Medical Officer does tend to support their underlying predispositions.

However, there are two good reasons why the border should be opened now.  Firstly, the national medical advice is that there has never been sufficient reason to close domestic borders.  Although Queensland may have a chance to eradicate COVID-19 in its comparatively dispersed population of 5 million, the chances of eradicating it in New South Wales (NSW) and Victoria with a more concentrated total population of 15 million are considerably less.  If that is the case, continuing with their current policy means Queensland's borders will remain closed for a very long time.

You could see past Crackneck all the way to the Norah Head lighthouse this morning

Secondly, Queensland's capacity to close their border is partly funded by NSW and Victorian taxpayers.  Queensland gets allocated more of the Australian Goods and Services Tax (GST) than is raised from their state economy, primarily sourced from the two southern states who receive less.  Also, the tourist sector in Queensland, which would hugely benefit from the resumption of tourism from the south, is being supported in the absence of those tourists by the Federal JobSeeker and JobKeeper payments.  This money comes from Federal consolidated revenue and borrowing, primarily sourced from, or repaid by, the taxpayers of the two southern states.  They are not quite as independent as they would like to think.

Apparently diving is back in business at the nearby sunken HMAS Adelaide

Today, I started my personal challenge of building up to run the marathon distance, by running at least every second day and incrementing the distance by one kilometre each time (I still may exercise on the intervening days).  I walked over to the Terrigal Haven and ran two laps of the park, totalling one kilometre.  Sadly, my right hip flexor was sore, more so on the walk over, so not really an encouraging start.  I have had some soreness in that hip flexor for years, and still managed to run, so maybe it's not a big deal.