Queensland-NSW border: Sunshine state strengthens fortifications on the Gold Coast highway
It’s long been hoped that internal borders were going to be a thing of the past in a matter of weeks but it appears Queensland is taking a different approach.
Queensland appears to be fortifying its border checkpoints, dashing hopes Australia’s internal borders could soon be a thing of the past.
Photos taken on the Gold Coast Highway, which serves as the main border checkpoint between NSW and Queensland, showed massive drive-through marquees had been erected.
Concrete blocks have also been used to hold down the massive tents, which are large enough to allow semi-trailers to pass through.
As reported by The Courier Mail, the decision to erect the marquees was to protect the police, stationed at the border checkpoints, from the elements, however the permanency of the arrangement has triggered fears the checkpoints could be in place for a long time.
The marquees and concrete barricades were installed across the northbound highway lanes at Bilinga last week, near the Gold Coast Airport.
Police and border workers check thousands of drivers a day, with authorities in Queensland on high alert after a number of truckies unknowingly infected with Covid travelled north into the state.
The NSW and Queensland border communities reformed their border bubble late last month, after a positive Covid case threw the Byron region into a seven-day lockdown.
Before the bubble was formed, there was protests in the border communities - specifically in Coolangatta and Tweed Heads - where thousands of people marched against the stark division.
Queensland and Western Australia have had some of the strictest border bans since coronavirus hit Australia early last year.
NSW, Victoria and the ACT are classified as hotspots by Queensland Health meaning anyone who has been in any of those states or territories must do a 14-day stint in hotel quarantine.
Under the national reopening agreement, borders will reopen when 80 per cent of the population is fully vaccinated against Covid-19, with Australia likely hitting that milestone sometime in November.
The rapidly approaching reopening date comes as Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk warned she needed more funding from the federal government to prepare her state’s hospitals for a surge in Covid cases.
“I am not going to put Queenslanders at risk until both of those issues are sorted out,” Ms Palaszczuk said on Friday.
“Which means a big injection of funds from the Federal Government into the states to make sure the hospitals are able to cope with the growth (in cases) that will happen.”
Prime Minister Scott Morrison slammed the premier’s comments this morning, telling Today she was holding the federal government “ransom”.
“I won’t respond to shakedown politics in a pandemic,’’ Mr Morrison said.
“We have been showering the states with money over the course of Covid.”
Today host Karl Stefanovic then asked the Prime Minister what he planned to do if “Annastacia Palaszczuk says alright, that’s fine, I just won’t open up”.
“Well, she has to take that up with the Queensland people then. I mean, to go down this point and say ‘Well, you know, I’m going to hold the Federal Government to ransom and seek to extort money from them on the basis of Covid’, I just don’t think is the right way to go,’’ Mr Morrison said.
“We’ve been working with them constructively. We’ve supported them time and again with joint funding initiatives. We’ve shared 50/50 the costs of Covid on the health system, more than 30 billion around the country we’ve pumped into health support.
“Of course there are challenges but as a state government, they’ve got to be responsible for their state health system. NSW is getting on with it, so are Victoria and the ACT, so Queensland needs to get on with it.”
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