Mayor Tom Tate: ‘Now is the time for action over words’

The chaos, stress and uncertainty we have seen play out on the Queensland and NSW border has been unnecessary and something I hope to never see again, writes Mayor Tom Tate.

The chaos, stress and uncertainty we have seen play out on the Queensland and NSW border over the past week has been unnecessary and something I hope to never see again.

Now is the time for quick thinking, innovation, agility in response, and action over words.

Not the stone throwing and name calling I’ve seen from some camps.

Moving the border check points several kilometres south to the Tweed River to alleviate this issue seemed like a no-brainer to me when I flagged it last week – a solution that would move the congestion out of the centre of Tweed Heads and Coolangatta and allow the border community to move freely.

Mayor Tom Tate: ‘Now is the time for action over words’. Picture: Tertius Pickard

I’m heartened to learn that the Premiers of our two states are now engaging on this issue – and hopefully doing so with the community front of mind.

I will also be calling on them for an urgent review of disaster management arrangements moving forward so that a cross-border cooperation of this nature would automatically occur if needed. A cooperation focused on need and taking into consideration things like population, geography and common sense – not an imaginary line on a map.

As I said, last week I raised the flag for the border to be permanently moved to the Tweed River.

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The chaos, stress and uncertainty we have seen play out on the Queensland and NSW border over the past week has been unnecessary. Photo: Scott Powick.

While I know the political will is not there at a State or Federal level right now, I genuinely believe this crisis has shown the need to look at this seriously. We have seen the difficulties faced at a border which is densely populated on each side.

Anecdotally, I’m hearing that by just being part of the Gold Coast, property values would go through the roof in the Tweed – in some cases up by 25 per cent over night. Great news for them.

Tourism businesses would also benefit significantly creating significant uplift to the economy. More great news.

I’ve also had a lot of feedback from that side of the border that they want this.

And how can you blame them? Who wouldn’t want a little piece of the Gold Coast?