We desperately need to open up Queensland Tourism in time for the June/July school holidays & give our businesses a chance of survival.

We all face missing out on critical tourism dollars during the school holiday period. Regional Queensland doesn’t have the population density like the Gold Coast, Sunshine Coast and Brisbane to draw upon and we need an extension of the 250km zone limitation for travel. It is unrealistic and not economically viable to place the same set of rules on Regional Queensland as the South East.

State-wide travel and the opening of the borders needs to occur as soon as possible to prevent a tsunami of business closures and to get locals back into jobs. We need to act now and allow tourism operators to get back to business.

If central and north Queensland can have what was earmarked for the outback region in Stage 2, where travel within the region for recreational purposes is allowed with a radius of 500km’s it would make a huge impact to the future of our small businesses. This June/July school holiday is critical to our survival.

Deputy Chief Health Officer Paul Kelly has said he can't see any medical reason why borders are still closed around Australia: "With so few cases in the community — less than 600 active cases, with many people who have come from overseas and are currently in quarantine — the risk of opening borders or plane travel is very low,"