Mayors: NSW side of border must be closed
THE NSW border should also be closed to avoid confusion and prevent the spread of Covid-19, northern NSW mayors say.
Confusion for residents on each side of the Queensland-NSW border was enough reason to stop people entering NSW, Tweed Mayor Katie Milne said yesterday.
She agreed with Byron Shire Mayor Simon Richardson after he urged the NSW Government to close its borders for non-essential travel.
Cr Milne said: “I don’t understand why we are not having a national lockdown.
“We should be like Italy, where people are behaving themselves inside.”
Not since 1919 has the border between Queensland and NSW effectively been closed.
Queensland police stopped traffic off the M1 at Bilinga and allowed entry only to those people who needed to cross the border.
The first morning of the new restrictions appeared to be more informative than anything else, but some people were turned away because “they did not meet any of the exemptions”.
Queensland police were advising motorists with NSW licence plates to go to the government website to obtain permits to enter the state.
The border patrol caused traffic to back up for kilometres on the M1 and on-ramps.
Ms Milne said it was causing problems for residents.
“It is hard to (have motorists) wait in a queue for an hour and a half – we are feeling the pain,” she said.
Those coming into Queensland for work, or other essential reasons, will need to go to the government website to obtain a permit.
State Disaster Co-ordinator and Queensland police Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski called for patience following a “soft launch” of the website.
Passes will be available for people to print at home for display them on their vehicle.