The Queensland state government has done a terrific job on keeping COVID out of our state but now is faced with the difficult job of how to open it up.
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I hope the Palaszczuk government does not squib the task but the government's record on difficult decisions is not good.
Consider the annual daylight saving debacle, where for six months of the year Brisbane is in the ludicrous situation of being a half hour behind Adelaide.
The cost to business in the south-east due to the change is huge with economic losses to Queensland costed at over $4 billion.
The 2032 Olympics will put further pressure to change but whenever pressed on the matter the Premier falls back on the hoary old line that the other states should follow Queensland's lead.
The premier is understandably wary of the strong opposition to daylight saving outside the south-east corner and does not want the bitter divisiveness a referendum on changing the time zone would bring with opponents like Robbie Katter ready to go on the warpath against it..
But that does not mean she can blithely ignore the problem.
A well-considered opinion piece by Brisbane man David Jones says the the timeline determination should be based on a north-south line not the east-west one of the Qld-NSW border.
He says Mount Isa has an hour of daylight saving built into its day, and with its summer heat, doesn't need any more, but Brisbanites by and large, support the change.
"So rather than Mount Isa's time being dictated by Brisbane and eastern standard time, it should be on a time zone of its own, one that is an hour behind Brisbane, or maybe half-an-hour centred say around a line north-south around Blackall/Barcaldine," Mr Jones said.
That might be inconvenient for those of us living in the west suddenly placed on a different time zone to the state capital.
But it pales at the growing anger in the more populated areas, who feel the cart is dragging the horse, and in the wrong direction.
We need to fix this problem before it is fixed for us. Ignoring it won't make it go away much as Ms Palaszczuk hopes.
Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
