Tweed border: Major Gold Coast school loses 28 teachers to tough NSW border restrictions.
One of the Gold Coast’s biggest schools will be without nearly 30 teachers on Monday thanks to tough border restrictions put in place because of the snap lockdown of Tweed Heads.
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TWEED businesses are “on the ropes” and a Gold Coast school left without 28 teachers after Saturday’s shock total lockdown of regional NSW and tough border restrictions.
The strict week-long snap lockdown from 5pm Saturday was announced two hours prior in a shock tweet by Deputy Premier John Barilaro.
Queensland ramped up its border restrictions with only essential workers able to cross the border.
The short notice has left Tweed businesses devastated and forced to throw out thousands of dollars of stock.
Burleigh MP Michael Hart warned one southern Gold Coast school would face a significant staff shortage, with more than 28 of its staff living in NSW and unable to cross the border.
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Palm Beach Currumbin State High School is facing a shortfall of 28 teachers when classes resume on Monday with the school warning parents most students would “a change in their teaching and learning experiences”.
Palm Beach Currumbin SHS principal Peter Hughes said where a student’s regular teacher was not able to attend school most classes would be delivered virtually under supervision or by a replacement teacher.
If a student from a border town was not able to attend school the teacher would contact the student to outline a plan for remote learning, Mr Hughes said.
Mr Hart, had declined to name the school, said: “I spoke to the principal and they have spent all weekend planning for what they are going to do, they have a lot of teachers who live in NSW,” he said.
“They are hoping to get by but I want to know whether the government actually has a plan for what is happening.
“If this is just one school in my electorate, then how many others across the Gold Coast are going to be impacted?”
Tweed councillor James Owen said some NSW residents who work in Queensland had even attempted to relocate across the border for the duration of the lockdown.
He said Tweed residents were struggling under the weight of the lockdown, which came despite the region not recording any positive cases.
“It is going to be a tough week and it is going to put businesses under massive financial stress,” he said.
“Everyone is exhausted from it, people have to let staff go, people they’re close to, because they cannot pay the rent or bills.
“There is a real sense of shock and we are on the ropes, because we do not know how long this is going to go for.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Sunday refused to comment when grilled about whether he supported the NSW government’s decision to announce it was putting all of regional NSW into lockdown via a tweet rather than by a live press conference as all other states had done.
Mr Morrison said he backed the decision to shutdown the regional areas, including Tweed Heads.
“I confirmed the decision of the New South Wales government to have a statewide lockdown, consistent with the advice that I had received from the chief medical officer that the government has considered and had been discussed with the NSW government,” he said.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian defended the decision, saying she had acted on “health advice”. “To be frank, by yesterday most of the state was locked down already,” she said. “It was just a few local government areas in regional and rural communities.
“In a pandemic, you have to act on the health advice you receive and we had received advice yesterday about many people moving from the ACT to the southern parts of New South Wales which was a concern given what is happening in the ACT so that advice was provided to me yesterday and we took that advice immediately.”
But Mr Owen said the suddenness of the lockdown had caught many Northern Rivers residents by surprise and caused significant grief.
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate warned the Tweed lockdown would make life harder for the thousands of people who cross it daily for work.
“The Covid crisis spreading across New South Wales right now is the biggest wake up call we can all get,” he said.
“Now, more than ever, is the time for everyone to get vaccinated. Only a vaccinated community will bring an end to these harsh lockdowns that are destroying economies across Australia.
“I urge all Gold Coasters to do two things: get vaccinated and spend locally. These two steps will go a long way towards helping every Gold Coast business through this economic and social challenges.”
Tweed MP Geoff Provest said the lockdown was “quite devastating.”
From 8pm Saturday NSW border zone residents can only enter Queensland for a permitted essential purposes which include:
* attend permitted work or emergency volunteering;
* attend school or childcare – only for children of essential workers. Essential workers can transport their children to attend face-to-face schooling or to attend a childcare facility
provide assistance, care or support to a vulnerable person or family member or visit a terminally ill relative;
* fulfil an obligation relating to shared parenting, child contact or contact between siblings
get a COVID-19 test or vaccination;
* in an emergency situation;
* for safety reasons (to avoid injury or illness, or to escape a risk of harm, including domestic violence);
* as directed by an emergency officer;
* to follow an exemption you have been granted by the chief health officer;
Essential work includes work that is urgently required for safety reasons, emergency repairs and essential services including medical care, emergency workers, freight and logistics, critical infrastructure, emergency volunteers and aircrew or maritime crew.
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