Cut off from his mother
A TOWNSVILLE mother is pleading with the state government to have some “compassion” as she prepares to go without a hug from her son for potentially six months, as he is forced to lock down in Covidravaged NSW.
Kaycee Thomas kissed her son, Nate, 10, goodbye on June 20 as he jetted off on a surprise school holiday trip to Orange to see his grandparents.
She expected to pick him up in a couple of weeks, but almost three months and thousands of Covid-19 cases later, Ms Thomas has no idea when she’ll see her son again.
The Queensland government acted quickly and enforced a hard border closure with NSW when Covid-19 broke out, but it ultimately locked stranded Queenslanders, including Nate, out of home. And as cases in the state continue to rise, there appears to be no end in sight to the closure.
“I understand the need for safety, but there’s no compassion. We understand the need to keep everyone safe, but there are a lot of us suffering for other people’s stupidity,” Ms Thomas said.
NSW was plunged into lockdown one week into Nate’s visit, and Covid-19 cases soon popped up in Orange.
Nate was eventually granted an exemption to cross the border and go into 14 days’ mandatory hotel quarantine.
But Ms Thomas said she couldn’t afford to fork out for flights and hotel costs that she fears would strip her of more than $6000.
She’s been left feeling helpless and lost without her eldest son.
“I just break down sometimes; I’ve had my moments, but I have to go to work and just get through it,” she said.
“Nate seems to be OK; he understands what’s going on,
but I can tell he’s missing everybody, but he knows he’s safe.”
Ms Thomas, who lives in Kirwan, has been forced to cancel Nate’s enrolment from his Townsville school and enrol him in one at Orange to ensure that he doesn’t fall behind.
She has also chosen to postpone her upcoming wedding, set for September 18, until next April, as she doesn’t want to get married without her dad
and son. Ms Thomas’s situation is similar to Fraser Coast boy, Memphis, who was stuck across the border with his grandparents for a number of weeks.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk copped heat for letting NRL families into Queensland during a two-week pause on interstate hotspot travellers, the same time Memphis was away from his parents.
Ms Palaszczuk apologised, saying it was not the right
thing to do. Memphis and his family were reunited on Friday, but Ms Thomas wondered how many more families were in their situation which the government wasn’t aware of.
“It’s just not fair. It’s easy for me to explain what’s going on to Nate, but his siblings have no idea,” she said.
“I really feel like there is no compassion from the government.
“They really need to think about what they’re putting people through.” Queensland Health refused to comment on Nate’s individual case, but said that it had warned people to get out of NSW when cases emerged.
“We know that border restrictions are inconvenient and can cause disruption to people’s lives and livelihoods. We must balance these factors against the serious health risk to more than 5 million Queenslanders,” a spokesman said.
“The aim of the strict border is to limit the number of people entering Queensland who could potentially import Covid-19 into our state, which we know could be catastrophic, leading to more lockdowns and even tighter control measures.”
It is understood Member for Thuringowa Aaron Harper has made contact with Queensland Health to see what he can do to help the family.