Queensland Return to Play

Find out about the plan to ease COVID-19 restrictions for sport, recreation and fitness activities.

• Queensland return to play
• RETURN TO PLAY Guide for Queensland sport, recreation and fitness industries (PDF)
• Return to Play Readiness Checklist
• Restart Plan
• Recreation and outdoor activities
• Fitness
• Sporting clubs and organisations
• Roadmap to Easing Restrictions

FACT SHEET: UPDATE ON RETURN TO PLAY

Outdoor recreation plays an integral role in keeping Queenslanders fit and active.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected our ability to enjoy the outdoors and over the next few months, there will be opportunities to re-introduce physical activity in our communities.
Change is coming for Queenslanders.

Following on from the National Cabinet meeting on 8 May, the Queensland Government will provide a staged approach to phase in sport and recreation over the coming months. We will work hard to help community sporting and outdoor activity clubs and organisations restart, while also keeping Queenslanders healthy and safe

Roadmap to easing restrictions

The Roadmap provides sensible and gradual steps to a COVID recovery that will reconnect our communities and keeps our economy moving by supporting business, industry and Queensland jobs.

Keeping your workplace safe, clean and healthy during COVID-19

Workers
You must take reasonable care for your own health and safety and the health and safety of others in your workplace. You must co-operate with any reasonable policy or procedure that relates to health or safety at the workplace.

Employers
You must take action to protect workers and others at the workplace from the risk of exposure to COVID-19 so far as is reasonably practicable. This includes implementing the public health measures issued by health authorities including Queensland Health and the Australian Government Department of Health. It is vital that you consult with and communicate with workers and their health and safety representatives (HSRs) on workplace measures to address COVID-19.

Put in place a plan to respond to COVID-19 and to any directives issued by Queensland Health—this should include infection prevention and control policies and procedures, safe systems of work, how workers and their HSRs will be consulted, and how you will monitor and update your plan as public health information changes. Consult with workers on the plan and display it clearly in the workplace. Consultation with workers, and, where applicable their representative, is required at each step of the risk management process.

Compiling a COVID–19 Management Plan

This guide is to assist outdoor sector associations and businesses to develop an organisation’s COVID-19 Management Plan. A templated table is provided to enable organisations to formulate a response to deal with risks in an active COVID19 environment. This template is to be used in conjunction with the Principles detailed in the “Outdoor Council of Australia (OCA) Framework”;

Outdoor Council Of Australia (OCA) Framework for Rebooting Outdoor Activities in a COVID-19 Environment

Although there appears to have been an increase in individual participation in outdoor activities in Australia since March 2020 in local urban areas, there has been a dramatic and disruptive shut-down of group outdoor activities provided by organisations.

Many people participate in outdoor activities that are delivered in many situations other than individual participation. This includes adventure therapy, tourism, community group recreation, school and other education settings. Each of these forums plays an equally important role in contributing to the physical, psychological and emotional wellbeing of Australians. The benefits of led outdoor experiences and of being in nature are extremely well documented. Research shows that participation in outdoor experiences with others and the connection with nature decreases a person’s anxiety and increases social connection. In particular with the significant increase and reliance on screen time and home schooling outdoor activities provide an ideal way of socially reintegrating children, increasing the connection to education, and addressing the stresses and strains that have come from social isolation.

It is also important to point out that it is relatively easy to maintain the current physical distancing norms while undertaking most outdoor activities

COVID-19 and Sporting Activity

AIS framework for reboot

The Australian Institute of Sport, partnering with the Australian Olympic Committee and Paralympics Australia in the lead-up to the Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games, is committed to providing the National High Performance Sports System with timely, evidence-based information on the Coronavirus (COVID-19) that recognises the unique concerns and context associated with high performance sport.

AIS framework for reboot

Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC) statement on the resumption of sport and recreation activities

AHPPC recognised the importance of the resumption of sport and recreation to Australian society emerging from the COVID-19 environment, and the many health, economic, social and cultural benefits sport provides.

AHPPC was firm that the resumption of sport and recreation activity at any level must not compromise the health of individuals or the community, and must be based on objective health information to ensure potential transmission rates are conducive to the safe conduct of sport and recreation.

COVID-19 – A Framework for Decision Making

Scotland’s Approach

Our challenge therefore is to work out if and how we can continue to suppress it and minimise its harms, while restoring some semblance of normality to our everyday lives.
Nicola Sturgeon, First Minister of Scotland

The impact on Scotland has been profound. Every life has been affected. No
individual, community or business has been untouched, and for many that has meant real and possibly long-lasting hardship. But the response from the Scottish people has been equally profound. Despite the cost to business and society, we have complied with restrictions and thereby reduced the pressure on our health and social care services, and saved lives.

That response reflects the core values of our National Performance Framework:
kindness; dignity; compassion; respect for the rule of law; openness and
transparency. It also aligns with our overarching commitment to human rights,
equality and social justice. In confronting the threat posed by COVID-19, we are determined that no member of Scottish society will be forgotten or left behind.

It is clear that we cannot immediately return to how things were just over 100 days ago. But it is equally clear we cannot stay in complete lockdown indefinitely, because we know that this brings damaging consequences of its own. So we must adapt to a new reality. With scientists around the world working on vaccines and treatments that are still potentially many months away, we need to find a way to live with this virus and minimise its harms. We need to ensure, that as far as we can, our children are educated, that businesses can reopen, and that society can function. But we must ensure that those things happen while we continue to suppress the spread of the virus.

While it is obvious that government cannot guarantee that no-one will become
infected with this virus in future, we are clear that an assumption that there is a proportion or section of the population that it is safe or acceptable to allow to be infected forms no part of the Scottish Government’s policy or approach.

Every individual member of Scottish society matters and our entire strategy is
focused on preventing every avoidable death. There is no such thing as a level of “acceptable loss”. That is an approach which reflects our commitment to
safeguarding human rights and upholding human dignity. It is the ethically correct approach to take. And it reflects the caring, compassionate and inclusive ethos of Scottish society.

Our objective is to contain and suppress the virus in order to minimise the harm it can do.

Our challenge is to consider if and how we can achieve that objective while restoring as much normality to everyday life as possible.

Although the decisions on if, when, and how to ease restrictions must be made by government, they cannot be made in isolation. We are listening to the best scientific advice and will apply our best judgements to that. We must also listen to the people of Scotland. Transparency and engagement is fundamental. This document sets out the situation as we understand it, and the principles on which we will base our decisions to ease the current restrictions or, should it become necessary to prevent harm to re-impose or further tighten restrictions.

Read Full Report

Direction from Chief Health Officer in accordance with emergency powers arising from the declared public health emergency

Public Health Act 2005 (Qld)
Section 362B

• Home Confinement, Movement and Gathering Direction
  (includes Q&A and help with understanding what these Directions mean)
• Stay Home, Stay Safe

Direction from Chief Health Officer in accordance with emergency powers arising from the declared public health emergency

Public Health Act 2005 (Qld)
Section 362B

• Non-essential business, activity and undertaking Closure Direction
  (includes Q&A and help with understanding what these Directions mean)
• Stay Home, Stay Safe

Stay Home, Stay Safe

• Lifeline: 131114
• MensLine Australia: 1300 78 99 78
• Headspace: 1800 650 890, https://headspace.org.au/
• Kids Helpline: 1800 55 1800
• Beyond Blue: https://www.beyondblue.org.au/get-support/online-forums

Resources for anxiety, stress & wellbeing

Feelings of anxiety are common in the uncertainty of COVID-19. Black Dog Institute’s tools and resources can be accessed by anyone, anywhere to help deal with this stress.

If you are looking for ways to look after your mental health, the Black Dog Institute list of evidence-based tools and resources for you and your community with anxiety, stress and mental wellbeing to help settle the mind.

Black Dog Institute

COVID-19 Support Resources

Source: Australian Association for Bush Adventure Therapy

Base Camp Well Being