PUT US IN BORDER BUBBLE: MAYOR

Antonio’s plea to State Government

MAYOR Paul Antonio wants the State Government to consider expanding the Queensland border bubble to include the Toowoomba region.

It comes as the city’s top schools search for leniency on new quarantining rules facing New South Wales boarding students coming back from holidays.

Under the measures, students would have to self-isolate at their school for 14 days, with no physical contact with anyone.

Cr Antonio also lashed the ongoing political fight between the Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and the Federal Government over the border closure.

TOOWOOMBA Mayor Paul Antonio has urged the State Government to seriously consider including the region in the south-east Queensland border bubble in the near future.

As the political fight continues over tough restrictions on Toowoomba boarding school students returning after the

September holidays, Cr Antonio said he would like to see a consideration for the bubble expanded further west to include Toowoomba.

“The State Government should look at it seriously, but there is a fair bit of testing that goes on as well with that,” he said.

“The border would be questionable as a boundary, given north-western NSW and south-west Queensland would be free of COVID-19 right now.”

It comes as a war of words erupts between Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk and the NSW and Federal governments over Queensland’s tough border stance.

Cr Antonio lashed the ongoing spat for its political motives, arguing that health officials should be the authority on the matter.

“I get a bit sick of politics when it’s played around — there’s a massive job interview coming up in October, (the state election) and it annoys me that people take advantage of a situation like this for political gain,” he said.

It comes as Toowoomba private school principals renewed calls for the State Government to lessen its restrictions for returning boarders.

Currently, NSW boarding students living outside the bubble will need to be quarantined in a self-contained room at the school for two weeks before they can join their classmates after the holidays.

While the Queensland Government has expanded the bubble southward to include Moree, schools say the exact boundary is still too vague.

Fairholme principal Dr Linda Evans said the concept of locking away a 12-year-old for two weeks without direct contact was “tortuous”.

“We do need a COVID-19 protocol, but just putting them in a room for two weeks is really tortuous,” she said.

“We’re placing children’s mental health at great risk.”

Glennie School principal Peter Crawley said the schools wanted to see a return to the original restrictions set earlier this year, where students could self-isolate on family properties.

“We’re still hoping to get some sort of acceptance of the self-isolation on properties, which would replace the after-holidays quarantining,” he said.

“We believe we are being very reasonable.”

tom.gillespie@thechronicle.com.au