Shifting the state boundaries an idea bordering on genius

THE chaos, stress and uncertainty we have seen play out on the Queensland-NSW border the past week has been unnecessary and something I hope to never see again.

Now is the time for quick thinking, innovation, agility in response, and action over words. Not the stone throwing and name calling I’ve seen from some camps.

Moving the border check points several kilometres south to the Tweed River to alleviate this issue seemed like a nobrainer to me when I flagged it last week — a solution that would move the congestion out of the centre of Tweed Heads and Coolangatta and allow the border community to move freely.

I’m heartened to learn the Premiers of our two states are now engaging on this — and hopefully doing so with the community front of mind. I will also be calling on them for an urgent review of disaster management arrangements so a cross-border co-operation of this nature would automatically occur if needed. A co-operation focused on need and taking into consideration things like population, geography and common sense — not an imaginary line on a map.

As I said, last week I raised the flag for the border to be permanently moved to the Tweed River. While I know the political will is not there at a state or federal level right now, I genuinely believe this crisis has shown the need to look at this seriously. We have seen the difficulties faced at a border which is densely populated on each side.

Anecdotally, I’m hearing by just being part of the Gold Coast, property values would go through the roof in the

Tweed — in some cases up by 25 per cent overnight. Great news for them. Tourism businesses would also benefit, creating significant uplift to the economy. More great news.

I’ve also had a lot of feedback from that side of the border that they want this.

And how can you blame them? Who wouldn’t want a little piece of the Gold Coast?