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Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk updates the state on the coronavirus pandemic at a conference at the International Cruise Terminal at Pinkenba.Credit:Matt Dennien

She also revealed the state recorded one new local case of COVID-19 overnight,a student at St Thomas More College at Sunnybank,who tested positive on day nine of home quarantine,where she had been during her entire infectious period.

There was also an overseas-acquired case detected and reported in hotel quarantine.

The $177 million cruise terminal was expected to be a glittering prize in Brisbane’s tourism industry with anopening date of October 2020 but when the coronavirus pandemic hit,the cruising industry was shut down.

Instead,the first ship to dock was theNavy’s HMAS Choules last month.

But Ms Palaszczuk said the state government would work with the cruising industry to allow some Queensland-based small cruise holidays from next year when the vaccination rates hit 80 per cent.

“I’ll put that to national cabinet as well,but I honestly think that is a great option for Queenslanders who are fully vaccinated to actually trial some smaller cruises up and down the Queensland coast,” she said.

“We’re a few months off that,of course,but we need to start the planning.”

In June 2020,Queensland Healthextended its ban on foreign flagged cruise ships entering state waters until the end of the public health emergency,while the Australian Border Force also issued a ban.

Four of the seven Queenslanders who have died after catching the virus were cruise ship passengers. Three of those were linked to the infamous Ruby Princessthat was allowed to dock in Sydney.

Ms Palaszczuk also cast some doubt on whether Queenslanders would be allowed to travel overseas by Christmas,after federal Tourism Minister Dan Tehan said the international border would be reopened by Christmas “at the latest”.

“Where are you going to go? Are you going to go to India? In Tokyo,you have to sit in perspex screens with masks on and if you remove your mask you can’t talk while you’re eating,” she said.

“Yes in Europe some people are travelling,I think the federal government needs to identify very clearly,what are the countries Australians can travel to.

“Queenslanders would probably enjoy greater freedoms travelling around Queensland than if they hopped on a plane and went to Tokyo.”

Asked what freedoms Queenslanders would experience once the vaccination rate hit 80 per cent,Ms Palaszczuk said the national plan would actually take the state “backwards”.

“I don’t want that for Queensland,so we’re probably going to see a difference for Western Australia and Queensland because at the moment we have freedoms,” she said.

“The national plan hasn’t been finalised. Eighty per cent will mean different things to different states.”

Ms Palaszczuk also would not say whether Queenslanders would be allowed to travel to Sydney and Melbourne by Christmas.

“At the moment,in Melbourne,they’ll be having 30 people over to Christmas dinner,they’re not talking about travelling to Western Australia or Queensland or NSW,” she said.

“In New South Wales,you have a massive Delta outbreak,so you have to go and ask the New South Wales government what is their plan for Christmas?”

Among eligible Queenslanders,61.53 per cent have received their first dose of a coronavirus vaccine,while 42.78 per cent are fully vaccinated.

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