North Coast MPs urge Premier to stop non-essential travel to keep locals safe

North Coast politicians have joined together for the first time to ask Sydney to show “courtesy and solidarity” by staying out of the region until vaccination milestones are reached.

Five North Coast MP’s have joined forces to ask Premier Gladys Berejiklian and Deputy Premier John Barilaro to keep people out of the North Coast until Covid vaccination rates catch up.

Nationals MPs Chris Gulaptis and Geoff Provest and Nationals MLC Ben Franklin have joined with Labor’s Janelle Saffin and Green’s member Tamara Smith to write a letter asking the government to take decisive action and listen to their policy advice on health orders.

A letter signed by five North Coast MPs asks the premier and deputy premier to reconsider health orders allowing people to travel to the North Coast while vaccination rates are under 70 per cent.

It comes after Covid fragments were found in the Grafton sewage treatment plant for the first time, and a third positive Covid case was revealed in the Coffs Harbour area.

The Tweed and Byron local government areas were locked down on Tuesday after a worker from Sydney tested positive in the Tweed area.

“We are really concerned that, without policy changes, our region will suddenly become deeply vulnerable to a major influx of newly freed Sydneysiders, while we are still short of the 70 per cent safety target,” the MPs write.

“This apprehension is shared by locally based medical professionals we have consulted as well as the broader community.”

It is the first time the MPs have come together in such a way.

They implored the leadership to reconsider health advice opening up the state to travel while regional areas lagged in vaccination status.

North Coast MP’s have written to Premier Gladys Berejiklian asking for a change in public health orders.

“We cross party MPs recognise that we are all in this together,” the letter states.

“We therefore ask you to adjust public health orders to prevent this happening, by restricting non-essential travel to the North Coast until it too has reached the milestone.”

The MPs said they were not criticising the vaccination drive initially being concentrated on metro areas and accepted there had been less community urgency in the area due to low infection rates.

“This is not just good health policy; it also provides Sydneysiders with an opportunity to show courtesy and solidarity with us in the same way we did with them in their darkest hour by redirecting some of our vaccine supply to its HSC students,” they state.

The premier’s office has been contacted for comment, while the deputy premier was unavailable for comment.

NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro provides an update on Covid-19. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short