Queensland request to move border bubble south rejected by NSW

Tens of thousands of residents, businesses and cross-border workers are facing ongoing turmoil after a request by the Queensland Premier to move the border zone south was rejected by NSW.

New South Wales has rejected Queensland’s plea to move the border bubble, leaving tens of thousands of residents, businesses and cross-border workers facing ongoing turmoil.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk had asked besieged NSW leader Gladys Berejiklian to shift the border zone south to quarantine northern NSW - which has been free of local Covid cases - from the rest of the virus-ravaged state.

But Ms Palaszczuk told The Courier-Mail that Ms Berejiklian had refused the request.

“We tried - we tried to keep our border communities together,” she said.

“We acknowledge these areas are part of NSW and NSW has introduced a lockdown for the whole of the state. This must be enforced.

“We tried to find a practical solution but unfortunately NSW said ‘no’.”

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says NSW has rejected a request to shift the border bubble. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dan Peled

The decision dashed the hopes of desperate Coolangatta-Tweed residents, businesses and workers caught up in the cross-border chaos.

It came as furious border business owners and staff rallied at Coolangatta on Thursday to vent their frustrations about the situation which has left the area a ‘ghost town’ and stopped workers including teachers, childcare staff and vets from getting to work.

Southern Gold Coast MP Laura Gerber, who organised the meeting, said: “This community is being ripped apart by a line on the map.”

Coolangatta restaurant owner Otello Mancini One said the border barricades, which will be reinforced by troops from next week, were like the ‘Berlin Wall’ dividing the ‘twin towns’ of Coolangatta and Tweed Heads.

Dentist Ramesh Sivabalan, who owns surgeries at Coolangatta and Murwillumbah, said he had been forced to train receptionists as quasi-dental nurses because staff could not get to work.

“There’s no cases in our area but our community is really suffering …. Please don’t put us in the same bucket as something that’s going on 500km away,” he said.

A Tweed Heads childcare centre operator said she and her staff were unable to go to work and feared for the mental health of children.

“The impact is just huge on everyone,” she said.

“”Our business is suffering and we’re already seeing anxiety in children and I’m really concerned for them.

“They can’t go to school, they can’t go to childcare.”

A Coolangatta veterinary surgery worker said emergency vets could not cross the border and clients were ‘on the phone crying’ that they could not get help for their pets.

She said a paramedic who needed emergency medication for their pet was stopped at the border and escorted by police to the surgery.

Coolangatta Surf Club boss Steve Edgar. Picture: Adam Head

Coolangatta Surf Club boss Steve Edgar told the meeting that it was ‘bloody distressing to see the pain on people’s faces’.

“We’re in a geographically beautiful place but right now, economically-speaking, we’re in the worst place in Australia,” he said.

“Unfortunately our beautiful whales can’t come and spend money in our businesses. Half our market can’t come to us, we’ve got an airport that is virtually closed?

“I’m calling on the State Government to immediately get some of their bloody marketing money they would have spent elsewhere and get people down here.”

Coolangatta butcher Brad Pond said Ms Palaszczuk was ‘scaring people away from our community’ with her warnings about Covid potentially breaching the border.

“I’ve never seen so many people distressed in Coolangatta than the past week-and-a-half,” he said.

“It’s great to see Annastacia enjoying herself at Broadbeach with our mayor. She needs to come down to Coolangatta for a coffee and talk to people down here.

“There’s more at stake than just a border line - it’s people and families.

“I believe we are Australians”

But vaccine hesitancy sentiments were strong among the business owners who spoke at the meeting.

Several said they and their staff felt they were being forced to hurriedly get the jab after the Palaszczuk Government made it mandatory from Friday for all essential workers to have had at least one dose of the vaccine if they want to cross the border into Queensland.

One healthcare business owner said young female staff were in tears ‘because they’re concerned they might not be able to have children in the future (after having the vaccine)’.

“They’re being forced to do it … where are our civil rights?” she told the meeting.

“As an employer, I have to deal with the mental health of my employees and now they’re going to be unemployed (if they refuse to get vaccinated).”

Mr Sivabalan said he was ‘not an anti-vaxxer’ but some of his staff were concerned at being forced to get the jab to be able to cross the border to get to work.

“We have staff that are young, they want to get married, they want to have kids (but) they’re unsure about the effects of the vaccine,” he said.

“All our staff are doing everything right … all they want to do is have a bit more time to see what happens (with the vaccine).”