BORDER MOVE A NO BRAINER

GOLD Coast Mayor Tom Tate is right on this one. His idea of relocating the troubleplagued Tweed-Coolangatta border checkpoints further south and out of the hubbub of the central area it is occupying now is, as he puts it, a “no brainer”.

What the politicians need to get their head around though with this whole condundrum is the relocation of checkpoints – patrolled by police, SES, at one time volunteer firies through gritted teeth and now the army (here’s a question: who isn’t patrolling the southern Queensland-NSW border?) – need not mean redrawing the boundary on maps.

As Tweed MP Geoff Provest points out in this newspaper that would probably require a referendum.

There is no time for that right now. This is about a temporary short-term fix to what could prove to be a lingering problem given this pandemic threat shows no time of easing any time soon.

Victoria is stricken with cases which keep rising. NSW is on high alert that it may too have various parts facing severe restrictions as its cases head upwards.

Queensland, by contrast, has had one new active case in more than a week, attributed to a cargo ship off the coast of Mooloolaba.

The need for the much-maligned border checkpoints has not abated. Thankfully wait times seem to be easing due to streamlining of the pass system and boosted resources at the choke points.

But it is still a giant and ongoing patience-sapping headache for those crossing on a regular basis.

Generally those affected are hard-working mum and dads, families going to and from schools and other local residents trying to go about their daily lives but being hampered by delays.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, after all the bickering about whether or not shifting the border south had been suggested and ignored months ago, is doing the decent thing and formally writing to her NSW counterpart to consider it now. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s initial response to the incoming letter is to suggest if anything the border should be moved further into the Gold Coast. That response is completely unreasonable, loosely translates to “up yours” and is not helpful.