Will you stick to the plan, Premier?

Seemingly, there remains a way to go until the nation achieves 70 per cent of eligible adults being fully vaccinated – the first vaccination milestone detailed in the National Plan and agreed to by National Cabinet.

Even so, the goalposts have been set.

There is a tangible and shared goal that can be tracked and measured giving a real-time score on progress.

Where uncertainty has prevailed for months – testing business to its limits – the certainty offered by the National Plan is a much-needed energy boost for the mentally exhausted business community – a fundamental economic contributor to public resources, infrastructure, and services and without which the public debt level will remain at an eye-watering level.

So, when Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk raises doubt on whether Queensland’s goalposts might shift, the business community must ask this simple question to the Premier: will Queensland be departing from the National Plan?

The Premier, despite previously agreeing to the National Plan, is now arguing there is insufficient detail in the plan’s modelling.

The business community is well versed in modelling.

It’s a tool also used by business to articulate goals, set plans, and mitigate risk. Mitigate, not eliminate – a key distinction.

Business accepts that inherent in even the best modelling, some risks remain but that for the greater good, mitigated risks must be taken.

Business accepts the responsibility of risk. But when the responsibility of risk is avoided, it doesn’t simply go away – it just gets passed on.

If the Premier is indeed preparing Queensland for a departure from the national plan, the burden of responsibility she and her government avoids will simply be passed onto the business community, and consequently the community at large.

Is the Premier then, asking the business community, and the community at large, to accept a greater responsibility of risk than she is willing for herself and her government to accept?

Business doesn’t look to a Premier to keep it safe.

Business looks to a Premier to demonstrate courageous, and measured responsibility.

Just as business itself does – every day and for the greater good.