NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian closes border weeks after dubbing Palaszczuk Government’s controversial border closures ‘crazy’

NSW will block borders to Victoria from midnight for the first time in 100 years but NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is urging the rest of the country, including Queensland, to open up.

NSW will block borders to Victoria from midnight for the first time in 100 years but NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is urging the rest of the country including Queensland to open up.

The decision to block Victorians after record coronavirus outbreaks comes just weeks after Ms Berejiklian dubbed Queensland’s controversial border closures “crazy”.

Ms Berejiklian had previously taken aim at Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk for Queensland’s complete border closure stance, labelling the situation “ridiculous” and illogical for putting jobs at risk.

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On Monday, Ms Berejiklian defended the shock decision to follow in Ms Palaszczuk’s footsteps stating the community transfer of coronavirus was “a new phenomena” – but she continued to agitate for Queensland to reopen its border to NSW and the rest of the country except Victoria.

New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian announces the closures of the NSW state border to Victoria. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Jeremy Piper

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Queensland is reopening its border from Friday at noon to every state except for Victoria.

“Given this move by NSW, we now anticipate the rest of the nation will be to deal with each other without hard border closures,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“We also have an obligation to make sure we don’t create any further job losses and we support our economy and the rest of the nation by having free and open borders.”

She urged Queensland to dump its highly contentious border restrictions, which it has already announced will change from Friday.

“What is happening in Victoria is very different, which is why we’ve had to take this necessary step,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“We have done this based on health advice and especially given the fact when our nation had the higher number of cases back in February and March, the vast majority of those cases were from overseas travellers or their direct contacts.”

When asked whether she felt “a little bit silly” after criticising the Queensland border blockade, Ms Berejiklian replied “not at all”.

“This is unprecedented in Australia,” she said.

Ms Berejiklian has already copped criticism from locals living on the border with Albury mayor Kevin Mack calling the situation a “s**t storm”.

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Victoria recorded 127 new COVID-19 cases yesterday – the largest increase in a single day since the pandemic began.

Two more people have died since Sunday, bringing the Victorian death toll to 22 and the national toll to 106.

Meanwhile, Queensland has reported no new cases for weeks with just one active infection left on the Gold Coast.

The individual is a woman in her 30s who is expected to test negative for the virus in the coming days.

With low rates of infection in Queensland, the state’s border block decision was deemed excessive and unnecessary by many tourism operators and hospitality workers who blamed the lack of holiday makers on the border block.

Many residents in the Tweed had to obtain passes to go to work or attend school just kilometres away, while inconsistent restrictions between the states made it impossible for businesses.

Federal data shows it costs the Queensland economy $147 million and is responsible for shedding 1000 jobs a week.

Authorities added further to the frustration last Friday when a surprise decision was made to introduce a new pass system, causing confusion and further delays at the border.

Premier Anastasia Palaszczuk welcomes the NSW-Victoria border decision and said Queensland “will continue to provide support to Victoria”. Pic Peter Wallis

On Friday residents reported taking up to two hours to get through the border blocks as traffic crawled at checkpoints, whereas it had been an average wait of 30 to 40 minutes previously.

In a statement on Monday, Ms Palaszczuk said: “We have had to make tough decisions for the health and wellbeing of Queenslanders which included closing our borders.

“We will continue to listen to the advice of our Chief Health Officer.

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“Last week we made the decision to maintain the border closure with Victoria,” she said.

Ms Palaszczuk welcomed the NSW-Victoria border decision and said Queensland “will continue to provide support to Victoria”.

Anyone coming from Victoria into Queensland must pay for a two-week quarantine in a designated hotel. Crossing the border requires signing a declaration stating you have not visited Victoria in 14 days. A false declaration may incur a $4000 fine.