The state where pubs, clubs and restaurants could be free from restrictions next month
Pubs, clubs and restaurants could be open for business as soon as next month in Queensland as the state blazes the trail with the roll-out of its coronavirus recovery plan.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced on Monday morning that June had been earmarked as a target for the opening of the hospitality industry, provided there were no major outbreaks of COVID-19.
“I think June’s a good ambitious target, so I’m going to be speaking to some of the representative associations this week. I can’t say if it’s early June or late June, but I’m going to have those discussions,” she told reporters.
“We’ve got to take these things a couple of weeks at a time, we can’t do it all at once.”
Ms Palaszczuk said the state government would take the same approach it had to schools, which were in the process of re-opening to their regular capacity.
She announced on Monday students in kindergarten, prep and Year 1, as well as students in years 11 and 12, would return to their classrooms from May 11.
The decision to reopen schools comes days ahead of the May 15 deadline initially set by the Palaszczuk Government, with all schools expected to be fully operational by May 25.
Schools remained at the forefront of the approach to the state reverting to its regular operations, as Ms Palaszczuk said a lot was riding on whether the reopening plan proves successful.
“Once our schools are back, we can absolutely then focus on getting our economy back,” she said.
“We can focus on (getting) people back into work, we can focus on the cafes and restaurants, we can focus on mining developments.”
The first easing of restrictions was over the weekend where people were free to travel up to 50km from their home to shop, visit a park or even go to a drive-in cinema.
They were still only permitted to move about with members of their household and were required to adhere to social distancing measures.
In the Northern Territory, pubs and restaurants are set to open in two weeks’ time, while in NSW, restrictions on indoor gatherings have been loosened slightly.
Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews has remained firm on keeping all restrictions in place.
Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan joined South Australia and the NT in allowing gatherings of 10 people.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced restrictions would be relaxed three days earlier across the country because of Australians’ “hard work” throughout the pandemic.
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