‘Yo Gladys, think of your folk’
QUEENSLAND’S Police Minister is urging the NSW Premier to think about “her citizens in Tweed” and get on board with moving border blockades south.
Police Minister Mark Ryan urged Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Tuesday to join a bid to shift troublesome TweedCoolangatta checkpoints further south to make lives of cross-border residents easier.
“I hope the NSW Premier agrees but it’s up to her,” he said of a proposal that Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has put in writing to her NSW counterpart.
“I’d like to think she would be thinking about her citizens in that Tweed area, and how to make life just a little bit easier for them,” Mr Ryan said.
But Ms Palaszczuk said that based on Ms Berejiklian’s comments on Monday – when she suggested that, “if anything”, the checkpoint should be moved further north into the Gold Coast – “it didn’t appear that she wanted to”.
However, legal minds doubt whether Queensland police would be able to enforce a health directive in another state if border checkpoints shifted.
Gold Coast lawyer Bill Potts said while the use of special constables with limited powers in another state was common, enforcing a Queensland health directive was “constitutionally grey” once across the border.
“It’s a pretty unusual thing. Most police officers close to the border are sworn in as special constables in NSW for limited purposes. But again, it’s constitutionally grey, it hasn’t been tested: enforcing a Queensland law in NSW is going to be extraordinarily difficult.”
Queensland police boss Katarina Carroll said it could definitely be done. “It has to be by agreement with that state and their directives have to align to ours,” she said.
But both pieces of legislation and both agencies had to work together. “We’ve looked at those scenarios as well,’’ Ms
Carroll said. “The legislation allows you to do it, but you have to have agreement from both parts.”
Mr Ryan said the logistics would be “worked through if NSW agrees” to the shift.
Asked about sending checkpoints north into the Gold Coast, Ms Palaszczuk’s office said she would not entertain that: “As the Premier has said, she is trying to make life easier for people living in border communities near the Tweed.”
Ms Berejiklian’s suggestion of moving the border north, temporarily or permanently, has been roundly criticised for likely creating worse traffic issues in more populated areas.
Ms Palaszczuk said: “We sent the letter to the NSW Premier. This is purely trying to make things reasonable. It’s about that continuity between those border communities. It’s up to the NSW Premier, she can either accept or reject it.
“I’ve sent the letter. I’m just trying to make it easier for the people who live in that Tweed area and Coolangatta, because we know they are intertwined.
“They shop in their different areas in those suburbs, they commute for business and they commute for school. I’m just trying to make it a bit easier and putting forward a sensible suggestion.’’
The state government has defended its ongoing border checkpoints aimed at weeding out visitors from COVID-19 hotspots as inconvenient but
IT HASN’T BEEN TESTED: ENFORCING A QUEENSLAND LAW IN NSW IS GOING TO BE EXTRAORDINARILY DIFFICULT
LAWYER BILL POTTS
necessary to curb the spread. Some residents have been caught up in queues for hours but police – bolstered by the army and new enlarged border pass expiry dates in windscreens – have cut wait times to less than an hour.
LNP Opposition Leader Deb Frecklington said that “petty fights with NSW must stop and solutions must be fast-tracked’’.
“The southern Gold Coast community has had to put up with congestion and confusion at the border because Annastacia Palaszczuk failed to properly prepare,’’ she said.
“Labor could immediately implement border passes for locals only and create dedicated lanes for locals at checkpoints as well.’’
State police Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler has said local passes were good in theory but not logical.
A NSW man aged 41 was fined $4003 for trying to enter
Queensland hiding in the boot of a car at Wallangarra in the Southern Downs on Tuesday.
Since July 10, 16 people have been fined for failing to comply with the COVID-19 border direction. On Tuesday, Queensland had no new coronavirus cases and two active cases. In total, 1061 COVID-19 patients across Queensland have recovered. Six have died.
Victoria had 374 new cases in the past day and NSW added 13 new active cases.