Coronavirus Gold Coast: Palaszczuk hits back at Berejiklian over border chaos
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk says the key to fixing the chaos at the NSW border is clear, but has hit back at her NSW counterpart for not coming to see it herself.
Gold Coast
Don't miss out on the headlines from Gold Coast. Followed categories will be added to My News.
WAIT times at the border checkpoints on the Gold Coast hit a peak of 45 minutes over the weekend, as the Premier claims authorities can do no more without NSW coming to the table.
Speaking to the media on Monday morning, Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said there were no further changes which could be made to the coronavirus checkpoints between NSW and Queensland.
“Of course there will be delays at the border, I can’t do anything about that,” the premier said.
“There will be delays, because we are protecting the border.
‘BORDER FACE MUST BE BROUGHT TO AN END’
HORROR FIGURES: VICTORIA RECORDS 532 NEW CASES
“I want to thank the locals who are doing an amazing job keeping Queenslanders safe.
“If there is outbreak of community transmission where it cannot be sourced, or where there are clusters, we will not hesitate to slam the border shut.”
The premier said while there was limited capacity to create locals-only checkpoints, but police have become aware of the regulars which reduced the wait.
The Queensland Government last week suggested moving the border checkpoints to the Tweed river, in NSW.
The proposal was later turned down by the NSW government.
TWEED HEADS RESIDENTS DEMAND TRAFFIC CHAOS FIXED
“Of course we want to make those border communities travel easily, but of course we have seen that attempt to get it accepted has not been supported by the NSW government,” the Premier said.
“I think if the NSW Premier had come up and had a look, she would have seen the practical sense of what we were suggesting.”
Chief Superintendent Mark Wheeler said more than 1 million border passes have been processed since the Queensland border was first closed four months ago.
The borders have since reopened, but declarations must be signed on entry
Those coming from Victoria or declared COVID-19 hot spots in NSW are turned around, or forced to quarantine.
“Since lunchtime on July 10th, in the Gold Coast district alone, across our checkpoints we have turned around 650 people at our checkpoints,” Spt Wheeler said.
“We also turned around 10 people at the Gold Coast Airport.
“There have been a number of opportunities for people to come in at our checkpoints. It would only take one of those people to come in being COVID-19 affected to have a consequence eon the community.”
Spt Wheeler said on Friday delays on the M1 sat at a peak of 60 minutes but over the weekend dropped to a peak of 45 minutes.
“Overall it didn't get much over 20 minutes outside of the peak,” he said.
“Those travelling through the border are reminded to check their border pass is up to date, and to be aware of any new COVID-19 hot spots.
“I would really like to thank the community for their patience and understanding,” Spt Wheeler said.
“We have asked a lot of the community, we have asked a lot of their daily lives and their daily routine but that is for a very good reason, we are trying to stop COVID-19.
“We are not seeing personal attacks on police officers verbally or physically.
“There has been the odd bit of frustration which is understandable.”
There were no new cases of coronavirus found in Queensland in the past 24 hours.
The Gold Coast has one active case and 196 recovered cases.
Originally published as Coronavirus Gold Coast: Palaszczuk hits back at Berejiklian over border chaos