North Australian FISH FINDER TM forums

Qld still has its border with NT locked down.

So they won't be going by road via Qld until that happens.

The continuing lockdown of the Qld borders by the State Govt is causing a lot of heartache in tourism industry and the pressure to open them is mounting daily.

Interestingly the Aus constitution mandates:

Rights of residents in States
A subject of the Queen, resident in any State, shall not be subject in any other State to any disability or discrimination which would not be equally applicable to him if he were a subject of the Queen resident in such other State.

and:

trade and commerce between States shall be absolutely free and 2 prominent Qld'ers have lodged cases with the High Court to open the Qld borders.

If successful, border closures by State Govts where residents of Aus (say NSW or Vic or SA or NT) would be discriminated against (not allowed into Qld) would be declared unconstitutional and therefore invalid.

THAT will probably open the way for compensation claims against the State Govts that DID close their borders in a manner that .

Good old Anastasia in Qld not thinking with brain (as usual) arrogantly remarked that by the time the High Court got around to hearing case, the borders would be open again and that's probably true.

But any compensation claims based on the damage that un-consitutional actions created would probably be valid.

Can of worms stuff.

It's a can of worms if a backdown allows the virus to start moving. Our constitution didn't have pandemics in mind.

Might be time for a constitutional referendum to allow border closures during times of pandemics. Unfortunately, constitutional referendums have rarely won voter approval.

“Good old Anastasia in Qld not thinking with brain (as usual)”

Can I ask what she does think with?

Can I ask what she does think with?

A part of her anatomy upon which she sits.

Before federation, Qld had quarantine restrictions in place at ports of entry into the state. Rockhampton was one of those ports as was Maryborough. New arrivals from o/seas by boat were required to go straight from the boat to a quarantine station where they stayed for a couple of weeks.

Those still alive (probably a bit harsh) at the end of the quarantine period, were then allowed out into the community to seek employment etc of which there was plenty.

Most newcomers to Qld in the 1860's to 70's were from England due to unemployment. The American civil war stopped the cotton imports from the US so there was no work in the clothing manufacturing industry in places like Manchester.

The Qld govt was well aware of the dangers of importing disease etc. Bubonic plague (Black Death) had been around for a few centuries (particularly in England) by then.

So were Aus's founding fathers (authors of the Aus constitution) with the outbreak of the "Black Death" in Sydney's Rocks area in Jan 1900 (before federation).

The o/seas vessel blamed for carrying the infection into Sydney had stopped in Maryborough (Qld) where an outbreak also occurred but not on the same scale as Sydney's. Wife's father told us of his childhood memories of plague victims in Maryborough being burned in their houses to stop the spread in 1900.

I don't think that the Fed govt had any hope in hell of preventing the import of the Spanish Flu in 1919 - 1920. The world had just been through 4 years of the War to end all Wars and the world just wanted go get on with life and bring all of the military participants home asap.

With overseas travel being what it was in the early/mid 1900s, immigration was the main source of worry about importing disease. Short term visitors or tourists weren't part of the mix in those days.

The Fed govt carried the responsibility for securing Aus's borders and have really fallen down on the job of protecting Aus from importing o/seas dangers. Health dangers were only given lip service.

There have been a couple of significant outcomes in relation to the way this pandemic has been handled.

One of the more significant ones is the manner in which each state has done its own thing about managing the health impacts leading to community confusion by inconsistencies between "rules" in each state.

I thought that the PM did pretty well in organising a "national cabinet" to try to get some consistency across Aus.

But now there are some pretty compelling reasons to think about a national approach to address Aus wide impacts flowing from o/seas events.

Don't hold your breath waiting for the states to agree though while there are premiers of the like of "Authoritarian Anastascia" of Qld and Chairman Daniel Andrews from the Peoples Republic of Victoria at the respective steering wheels.

A part of her anatomy upon which she sits.

Good answer, haha.

And great detail in the rest of it.

I see you are up early Ron, packing the boat?

Always up early, Matt. Love worms.

Will be going out this week for a number of trips. On Fri caught up with a school of about 500 king threadies sitting around on 8-9m contour at mouth of river. Couldn't get even 1 to bite. Still waiting for big prawns to enter river.

Mitch back in Rocky permanently now. He's put the barra gear away and is looking for spanno opportunities while chasing king as a fill-in.