Blockade blues for business

THE familiar sight of concrete bollards and police at border checkpoints is killing trade in the Tweed, operators say.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk announced on Monday checkpoints would be reinstated and the state was closing to Greater Sydney’s hotspot.

The closures are identical to those introduced when the border was first shut in March.

A popular Tweed seafood business trying to recoup losses after a terrible year has found itself with an expensive oversupply of seafood.

Sam Patrick Beau, of Get Hooked Fresh Seafoods at Tweed Heads, said 30-40 per cent of customers come from the southern Gold Coast. But they have dropped off after the border blockade returned.

Ms Beau, who’s partner owns Get Hooked, said she stocked up on oysters and lobsters on the back of a Christmas campaign by the Aussie seafood industry.

“There was a media drive to get people to eat seafood this Christmas. That’s after China refused to buy Australian lobsters. There was the risk fishermen would go out of business and jobs would be lost,” she said. “We’ve got 500 dozen Coffin Bay oysters, 200 lobsters – we need to move it on to the customer but the border closed.”

The border decision was labelled “shooting from the hip” by Tweed MP Geoff Provest (pictured) who criticised the first 24 hours as filled with “loopholes”. Until Tuesday, the only physical road blocks were on Gold Coast Hwy and M1. Mr Provest said it meant those wanting to beat the system could have exited and gone into Queensland via local streets of Tweed and Coolangatta for about 24 hours.