Time for Qld to check out of compulsory tracing app: KAP

21st January 2022

Nick Dametto MP and Cbar owner Allan Pike

Redundant compliance measures such as the Check-In Queensland app must be ditched as the State moves towards the next phase of the COVID-19 pandemic – living with the virus – Katter’s Australian Party Deputy Leader and Hinchinbrook MP Nick Dametto has said.

Mr Dametto said the State Government had tested the public’s patience and trust over the last two years, and that it was critical “extraordinary” measures such as mandatory check-ins were scrapped as soon as they became redundant.

“The Government no longer has a practical use for the checking in anymore, they have ceased with contact tracing and are no longer listing exposure sites, so what’s the point of knowing where we have been?” he said.

“Queenslanders have become complacent with checking in because the practical requirement to check in has become obsolete.

“The whole point of checking in was contact tracing and, if Queensland Health isn’t contact tracing or following up close contacts via exposure sites anymore, then what’s the point?

“There is no practical or legitimate use for the check-ins any more so just like the dismantling of Queensland’s hard borders, this policy has to go.”

Mr Dametto said the ditching of mandatory use of the app would free up struggling and exhausted business owners and event organisers who have been forced to manage the State Government’s check-in rules.

“This hasn’t been an easy road for our businesses, who have been collateral damage as a result of both the State and Federal Government’s changing approaches to managing COVID-19,” he said.

“We have all been patient, and the least the Government can do is wind back the draconian measures that no longer serve any purpose.

“Australia is not a surveillance state and requiring people to log their movements without any legitimate justification is cutting too close to the bone.

“We are now living with COVID-19 in Queensland – policy changes are necessary as the way we deal with COVID changes.”

Mr Dametto said the Check-In Queensland app could still be used as a digital tool for proof of vaccination without requiring compulsory check-ins.

—ENDS—