Polglase in Ballina border bubble push

A VETERAN Tweed councillor has urged the Queensland and NSW premiers to put aside personal grievances and push the border bubble south to Ballina.

Tweed Chamber of Commerce boss Warren Polglase is worried about the mental health impacts of the tough border measures.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Tuesday bowed to pressure to extend the bubble, but just to the Goondiwindi area.

It comes after Richmond MP Justine Elliot wrote to

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian last week requesting checkpoints be moved south urgently.

Cr Polglase met with NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro and Tweed MP Geoff Provest on Tuesday.

He spoke to Mr Barilaro about moving the bubble to the Ballina boundary, which needs the co-operation of Queensland and NSW.

“Whether that requires police, better testing at the airports, that sort of thing ... and more testing around the area if that needs to be the case,” Cr Polglase said.

“It was well received.”

But Ms Palaszczuk and Ms Berejiklian have had little to do with each other since the coronavirus pandemic began and have fired off pot shots through the media.

“Look, we need to take the politics out of this and have a commonsense approach and create an opportunity for dialogue,” Cr Polglase said.

He took issue with the declaration of all of NSW as a hot spot, considering the local health district had recorded no new cases since July 25.

Cr Polglase’s push came as Queensland recorded one new case in the 24 hours to Wednesday, a male in hotel quarantine, bringing the total number of active cases to six.

Ms Palaszczuk said the government had no plans to relax restrictions, despite a push by business and the state’s low case numbers.

She also said discussions were under way about the future of Schoolies 2020.

Meanwhile, Master Builders NSW president Peter Leotta shared confronting figures showing how the tough border stance was impacting the industry.

He said nearly 1000 applications for exemptions applied for online by contractors, builders and suppliers from both sides of the border had not been acknowledged and the Northern Rivers had close to $150m worth of work in limbo.

He said the industry was being ignored.

WE NEED TO TAKE THE POLITICS OUT OF THIS AND HAVE A COMMONSENSE APPROACH AND CREATE AN OPPORTUNITY FOR DIALOGUE