Ken O'Dowd (Flynn, National Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise tonight to speak on the effects of COVID-19 in my electorate of Flynn. There's some good news, but, unfortunately, there's some bad news that goes with it. Some businesses have increased their sales dramatically. I refer to the white goods wholesalers like Betta Electrical and Harvey Norman. The white goods sold out very fast. They're still selling, and stock levels are low. Cooking at home happens more often than not now, so kitchenware, freezers and that type of stuff have maintained a very high level of sales. Home improvement stores like Bunnings and smaller hardware stores also did very well. People were doing do-it-yourself projects at home and gardening—all the things that can be done at home—and it definitely increased sales. I've never seen homes in Gladstone and other towns looking so prim and proper.

Takeaway food stores did well in my electorate. McDonald's were down on the food side but up on the coffee sales as people drove through the McDonald's takeaway. Cattle prices maintained a very good level and the cattle sales were very well attended. Beef prices were kept high because of New South Wales having such a good season. They weren't so good in Queensland, but they were better in New South Wales. Buyers from New South Wales attended most of the sales to build up their herds in that area. Of course, the minister for resources was very pleased to note that coal, gas, even gold—gold prices have been at one of the best levels for quite a long time—aluminium, hydrogen development, cement and chemical industries in Gladstone, and the Gladstone port, all had full employment. Those guys weren't affected at all when it came to work. Pushbike sales and quad bike sales all skyrocketed. Supermarkets did very well; panic buying certainly boosted their sales for quite a long time.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of people in business who have suffered during the six months of COVID. There are too many to mention. To name a few, there were people with cross-border issues of sending equipment backwards and forwards when the property was on one side of the border and their homes were on the other side, and the equipment was on one side of the border and not the other side. Hotels, motels, resorts and B&Bs all suffered. We didn't have the grey nomads coming up from the southern states into Queensland. But I do report that the highways up in Queensland have been really full the last couple of weeks. I went to one of the holiday resorts at Agnes Waters, and I have to report that business was very good. There is a lot of activity there.

But with the restrictions on numbers and hours for hotels in country areas, it just was not viable for them to open their doors. Some of those hotels don't get any more than 20 people in there on a good day, yet they were restricted. They suffered badly—especially when the police raided hotels in Wallumbilla, Injune and Roma and fined the publican $6,000. I thought that was a pretty low hit. They didn't need to do that when the pubs were struggling. A lot of pubs were caught with keg beer; of course, that product has a use-by date and it was sometimes wasted down the drains—shocking! A lot of the farms did well, but there's a shortage of seasonal workers in most areas of Queensland and Australia. Some of them can't leave Australia and can't get back to Australia. So that's the issue.