BORDER BUSTS
PATROLS TURN BACK 58 INVADERS
DOZENS have been turned around at Gold Coast border checkpoints in the days after the state became closed off to greater Sydney.
With the hotspot declaration, shutting out more than five million Sydney residents coming into effect at 1am on Saturday, the lines to cross the border peaked on Friday afternoon, with traffic seemingly flowing through the weekend.
In total, to 4pm on Sunday, 58 people were denied entry into Queensland at the border, while another three were turned around at Coolangatta airport over the weekend.
Gold Coast Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler said police had been happy with the compliance of people crossing into Queensland.
“There has been very good compliance, we are seeing a lot of the new passes, but we are still doing a lot of random intercepts,” he said.
“Anecdotally we know there were quite a few from Greater Sydney turned around, and we didn’t issue any fines.”
Gold Coast police were also kept busy checking up on nightclubs and pubs across the city to make sure they were abiding by strict opening conditions.
“We did about 60 checks on Saturday night, in terms of compliance, social distancing was quite good and we didn’t find any evidence of people dancing or not abiding by the conditions.
“There were no fines issued across the weekend, the line-ups and in the clubs there were no issues identified, this was across Surfers and Broadbeach.
“We’re quite happy with compliance shown over the weekend and we want people to continue with that.”
Coolangatta Board Store co-owner Veri Freitas said she was concerned that checkpoint personnel were not wearing personal protective equipment when screening NSW and Victorian motorists.
“I think it is negligent and putting us all at risk,” she said.
“It’s nerve-racking how fast COVID-19 spreads and I think we need to take it more seriously.”
Supt Wheeler answered the criticism saying there was no medical direction for officers on the frontline to wear masks when interacting at the borders.
“We’re acting on medical advice and we have an abundant supply of PPE and at the moment it’s up to the individual officers discretion, whether they wear a face mask.
“There is no requirement at the moment to wear face masks in Queensland and accordingly we’re not directing our police to do that, because we act on medical advice.
“We’ve also had health and safety inspections on our border checkpoints and that’s not an issue that’s been identified.
“I can understand why people may think that when they see what’s happening in Victoria, but I think it’s important that people understand that there is no requirement at the moment, but if that changes, we will.”