Qld’s comes down hard with toughest border stance yet

Every single car that tries to enter Queensland from NSW will be stopped by police with very few allowed entry. Here’s all the rules you need to know.

Every single car that tries to enter Queensland will be stopped by police, with very few allowed entry as the state enforces its toughest border restrictions since the pandemic began.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said after learning from Twitter the entire state of New South Wales would go into lockdown she had no choice but to mobilise more police to protect the border.

“These are probably the tightest border controls we’ve put in place, they are going to be very strict, we are checking people,” she said.

“We worked very hard yesterday late afternoon and into the evening to get extra police presence down there … because all of New South Wales is in a lockdown position there should be very minimal movement over their border, and that extra police presence will ensure that we will do everything we can to keep Queenslanders safe.”

NSW border zone residents can now only enter Queensland for obtaining essential goods and services that can’t reasonably be obtained in NSW and for essential work.

The list of essential workers has been slashed to include only medical practitioners, emergency health services or emergency services workers, national defence, state security or police, freight or logistics operators, emergency infrastructure workers, emergency volunteers and disaster management workers.

From Monday childcare workers and teachers are no longer considered essential.

The hardest border restrictions yet will be enforced at the Qld / NSW border on the Gold Coast. Picture Glenn Hampson

Police Commissioner Katarina Carroll warned motorists to expect delays if they were crossing the border as police intercept every single car coming into Queensland.

Ms Carroll on Sunday said police had “significantly” ramped up their resources on the border with New South Wales, after the state was locked down yesterday.

“You will see every vehicle being intercepted coming into Queensland,” Ms Carroll said.

“I ask Queenslanders not to travel into New South Wales and those coming from NSW can only come in if they have an exemption or are part of the essential worker group.”

She asked people to be patient and polite at checkpoints.

“Every vehicle will be intercepted, please be patient, please comply and please work with us,” she said.

It comes as NSW recorded another horror day of cases with 415 locally acquired cases announced Sunday morning.

In Victoria locally acquired coronavirus cases and mystery infections are continuing to grow despite tough lockdown measures, Victorian authorities have conceded.

Victoria recorded 25 local Covid-19 infections on Sunday, with five new mystery cases emerging overnight.

The fraught relationship between Queensland’s and NSW’s premiers took another blow on Saturday when the NSW Government chose to communicate to their residents and the rest of the country the whole state would be in lockdown via Twitter.

Asked about why she wasn’t given a courtesy phone call Ms Palaszczuk said that was a question for NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian to answer.

“That’s a matter for them but that’s not the way we communicate to the Queensland public,” she said.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk at Southbank on Sunday where she confirmed she found out about NSW entering lockdown via Twitter. Picture: Peter Wallis

Ms Berejiklian defended her decision to announce NSW’s statewide lockdown on social media just two hours before it was to come into effect yesterday, arguing that “by yesterday most of the state was locked down already”.

As the situation down south continues to worsen Queensland recorded no new local acquired cases yesterday and only one case in hotel quarantine.

Deputy chief health officer James Smith said the man, aged in his 20s, arrived from Iran via Dubai and tested positive on day one of hotel quarantine.

“We expect that there will be further cases as we move forward,” he said.

“The fact that we’ve got no new cases today certainly means that it’s encouraging and that we’re moving in the right direction.”

Three nightclubs in Brisbane were fined $6892 each after they were caught by police flouting restrictions.

Ms Carroll said the “hefty fines” were dished out after patrons were found not wearing masks, patrons standing up and having their drinks and also having too many people in an area.

She said all three businesses had been previously warned about noncompliance and reminded businesses that police will continue to carry our checks “day and night”.