SA-Victoria border no longer living under a two permit system reignites calls for change

The SA-Victoria border community has claimed a huge win and its only bolstering its call for an advocate to protect its residents from “city-centric decisions”.

South Australia’s border residents no longer need a permit to enter Victoria and the win has ramped up its calls for the appointment of a South Australian cross border commissioner.

In less than a month over 3500 emails have been sent to political leaders on both sides of SA-Victoria border in a plea to stop treating residents as “collateral damage”.

The petition, led by Cross Border Call Out’s Paula Gust, started as Victoria teetered on the brink of its most recent Covid-19 lockdown.

Ms Gust said the removal of the Victorian permit system which had to be renewed every 14 days was fantastic news.

“It was really good to see the cross border community all jump on and fill out the form and put the pressure on,” Ms Gust said.

Paula Gust, of Apsley in Victoria and her daughter Holli, a Seymour College student spent months separated by border closures in 2020. Picture: Brenton Edwards

“(Victorian Cross Border Commissioner Luke Wilson) also played a major part in it and he’s validated his role.

“It shows the need for a South Australian cross border commissioner.

“We’ve been asking for this for a while, we were making headway with that but the latest outbreak pushes everything to the side.”

Living on the borderline at Aspley in Victoria, Ms Gust created Cross Border Call Out the at the night of the first hard border closure.

With many left confused by the ever changing restrictions, the website and Facebook page have become a go to for update information and Ms Gust has dedicated her time to lobbying for those on the border.

“We need somebody doing my job,” she said.

“I shouldn’t be doing this, our page shouldn’t exist we need somebody for the border communities, advocating and getting through to the getting to present things to the decision makers.”

Life on the border has not returned to normal in 14 months Ms Gust said residents lived in constant fear.

“When there’s lockdowns and then things recover people’s lives go back to normal but our still haven’t,” she said.

The South-Australia-Victoria border checkpoint the Princess Highway checkpoint the day the hard border closure ended in December. Picture: Jessica Ball

“Number one is SA needs to get an understanding of how this border community works and we just cannot survive if they keep doing the border closure.

“We’d understand if it was extreme and Victoria was just full of Covid, that’s a totally different ballgame.”

The petition calls for an end of the border community being “collateral damage due to city-centric decisions”.

“The border communities need an advocate, as we don’t have a direct communication line to the rule makers in VIC or SA. We respectfully wish to raise several issues with you and request an audience,” the petition reads.

Since its inception it has sent a collective 3500 emails to SA’s Premier Steven Marshall, Chief Public Health Officer Nicola Spurrier, Police Commissioner Grant Stevens, Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews, chief health officer Brett Sutton, Cross Border Commissioner Luke Wilson, Chief Police Commissioner Shane Patton and Prime Minister Scott Morrison.