STOP SMOKING THE TWEED GLADYS
NSW Premier’s brain fade: Let’s move the border to where 600,000 live
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is considering a request to relocate the Tweed-Coolangatta border – but wants it further north into the Gold Coast. “We’re happy to consider all options – if anything, the border should be moved north,” she said. But her response to Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s inbound formal written request to move the troubled border checkpoints 7km south has not impressed Gold Coast senator Murray Watt: “The point of moving the border would be to remove it from a highly populated area. That problem would only become worse if you move it further north.”
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is happy to consider moving the controversial southern Queensland borderline with her state — but only further north into the Gold Coast, not south to the Tweed River as proposed.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk was on Monday writing to Ms Berejiklian to push for support to relocate the drama-plagued Tweed-Coolangatta border checkpoints 7km south. It would aim to ease the traffic congestion and impacts on the lives of what is essentially one community split in two by border checkpoints.
The checkpoints are aimed at weeding out visitors from coronavirus hot spots.
But Ms Berejiklian would rather see it shifted in the other direction.
“We’re happy to engage and consider all options,” she said.
“If anything, the border should be moved north.
“There is zero infection in northern NSW at this stage and certainly we’ll do the right thing by residents on both sides of the border but I have no intention of changing things as yet.”
Traffic queues from NSW into Queensland have at times during the past week stretched for kilometres and involved motorists waiting for two hours or more, although a new windscreen border pass with a giant expiry date and army reinforcements for police patrolling checkpoints has cut wait times to 45 minutes on the weekend and 23 minutes on Monday.
Gold Coast Senator Murray Watt said Ms Berejiklian’s response to move the border further north into the Gold Coast didn’t make sense.
“It’s not realistic to move the Queensland border north. The point of moving the border would be to remove (checkpoints) from a highly populated area, where you have lots of cross-border trade,” he said. “That problem would only become worse if you moved it further north.
“I’m not going to buy into the permanent (border) move. I’m thinking about what we need short term to get through this problem.
“I would have thought moving checkpoints south is the most sensible move and one that would inconvenience the least people.”
Tweed Mayor Katie Milne said her council “strongly opposed” moving the border checkpoints south.
“The checkpoint should be moved further north to the Bilinga Tugun area as this is a Queensland initiative,” she said. “They need to take responsibility to fix it or bear the burden in their own state, not ours.
“This would just move the problem further into our shire and create even more chaos for our community.
“Whilst we understand and support the Queensland government’s border controls, this has had a devastating effect on our community and businesses. More needs to be done right now to alleviate the massive delays as people are suffering badly and businesses are going to the wall.
“We desperately need a more streamlined approach with more attendants to
process crossings and let locals pass.”
Other Tweed leaders are horrified by the calls to shift the border south and worry it would lead to overdevelopment and a sprawl of unwanted high-rises.
But Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate, believing property prices and the tourism economy would skyrocket in the Tweed as a result of joining the Gold Coast, said the idea of relocating the troublesome border 7km south seemed like a “no-brainer” and “a solution that would move the congestion out of the centre of Tweed Heads and Coolangatta and allow the border community to move freely”.
No Tweed councillors have backed the southern border move publicly and Tweed MP Geoff Provest said he believed only a tiny minority of residents supported the idea. It would see Banora Point and Tweed Heads, two of the shire’s most populated suburbs, join the Coast.
Mr Provest said: “I’m absolutely opposed to it.
“The high-rises have always been a contentious issue. We’re quite happy with the way we are.
“It’s been a Queensland mess from the beginning. Moving the border would divide the Tweed. It would severely inconvenience the majority.
“The permanent move of the border, to get a bit of reality, you would need to have a referendum in each state.”
Tweed councillor James Owen said: “One of the key mantras in Tweed is we don’t want to be like the Gold Coast. It’s about keeping our identity, our relaxed lifestyle, our beautiful environment.
“The kind of Gold Coaststyle development is something not right for Tweed.
“We love the Gold Coast, it’s a good neighbour and we like going over and enjoying it. But we love Tweed — our little piece of paradise.”
Currumbin MP Laura Gerber rubbished relocating the border at all and instead wanted a local pass system implemented for smoother, quicker crossings: “What will help my community right now is if locals had a dedicated pass for locals and a dedicated lane, an express lane, for locals.”
BULLETIN VIEW P12
IT’S NOT REALISTIC TO MOVE IT NORTH. THAT PROBLEM WOULD ONLY BECOME WORSE IF YOU MOVE IT FURTHER NORTH
SENATOR MURRAY WATT