Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has brushed off southern plans to lure Queensland businesses, saying NSW and Victorian families are instead packing up to move to the Sunshine State.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has announced a $250 million scheme offering businesses payroll tax relief, cheaper rent and quicker planning approvals if they create 30 jobs in her state.
Ms Palaszczuk says business will actually be lured to Queensland by her own economic recovery plan and she doubts her NSW counterpart can turn the tide of immigration to Queensland from other states.
Queensland had a net gain of 6750 people from interstate including 4012 in the June quarter, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
“And can you blame them, honestly, can you blame them? And in terms of that migration Queensland is leading the way,” Ms Palaszczuk told reporters.
“So I expect … once we get through all of this, I think you’re going to see a lot more families packing up from NSW and Victoria and wanting to move to Queensland.”
The Queensland premier also defended her text message saying: “Queenslander” to Ms Berejikilian after NSW Blues lost State of Origin I on Wednesday night.
“If you can have a bit of fun with State of Origin – every NSW and Queensland premier has had bits and talks about the State of Origin and obviously NSW was a little bit upset at the mighty Maroons won,” Ms Palaszczuk said.
The NSW premier said she didn’t know whether to be “shocked or bemused” about the message, which came in response to Ms Berejiklian congratulating her on her election win and asked to talk about the border closures.
Ms Palaszczuk’s office told AAP national cabinet was the appropriate forum for border discussions and Ms Berejiklian’s running commentary about the border had been unhelpful.
The premier maintained decisions about opening the border to greater Sydney and Victoria will be made at the end of November.
Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski said the worst delays crossing the state border were lasting between 15 to 25 minutes.
He said police were planning to bring in new online border passes, which will make things more efficient, from next week.
“Please prepare, please plan ahead, be patient, make sure you have your border declaration passes prepared and displayed and have your validating material with you when you come to the boarder and that will make things a lot more smooth,” Commissioner Gollschewski said.
Queensland recorded no new cases of COVID-19 with just eight active cases on Friday.
The state has now gone 53 days without a case of unlinked community transmission.
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