Coronavirus: ‘For us, it is survival’: border communities demand action

Furious mayors of border communities are demanding national cabinet urgently help their residents access medical treatment, go to work and even see their children.

Gabbie, left, Chloe and Josh Elbourne may be stuck in Brisbane for the school holidays, rather than having to quarantine if they go home to Moree, NSW.

Furious mayors of border communities are demanding national cabinet urgently agree on measures to help their residents access medical treatment, go to work and even see their children, with calls to expand safe travel zones or only restrict the movement of those in COVID-19 hotspots.

As Scott Morrison pushes for cross-border medical treatment to be co-ordinated through the ­national incident room, where federal­ and state authorities res­pond to health emergencies, mayors said the ad hoc approach to border closures was causing grief and long-term plans were needed.

The Prime Minister has also asked the states to use the national co-ordination mechanism, a special­ crisis committee established after 9/11 that gives federal and state governments sweeping powers to enforce strict non-health measures, to ensure agricul­tural supply chains are not disrupted.

Tammy Elbourne in Moree. Picture: Georgina Pool

Katrina Humphries, mayor of the Moree Plains Shire Council in northern NSW, said her community had a close affinity with bordering Queensland towns but the Palaszczuk government had “cherry picked” postcodes to be part of a safe travel bubble that was not working for enough people.

Ms Humphries ­labelled Queensland’s border closure to NSW “socialist” and “political” and said it had taken a huge financial and mental toll. “Lock down hotspots, isolate hotspots, and let the rest of Australia get on with it,” she told The Australian.

“It’s past the stage now of conciliation — for us, it is survival.

“We’re right: we’ll find other mar­kets, we’ll find other places to have a holiday, we’ll find other medical people … But I feel so ­incredibly bloody sorry for the people of southeast Queensland. They are going to be absolutely decimated in their businesses.”

National cabinet will meet on Friday, and problems facing border communities are expected to be a top priority.

Tourism Moree chief executive Tammy Elbourne has three children — Josh, in Year 12, Gabbie (Year 9) and Chloe (Year 7) — at boarding school in Brisbane and has been told she cannot pick them up for school holidays unless she drives directly to the school and back without stopping. It is more than an 11-hour return trip.

If the children do come home, they would have to quarantine at a hotel of the Queensland government’s choice for two weeks before returning to school.

“It will cost me over $4000, I have to be there and miss two weeks of work,” Ms Elbourne said.

“My son starts his final Year 12 exams 2½ weeks after we return from the term three holidays. For him to miss those crucial two weeks at school cannot happen.

“I now have a 13-year-old that, as of last night, said to me: ‘Am I not coming home until Christmas?’ Effectively these kids will spend 22 weeks away from their family unnecessarily.”

Further south, the NSW government announced on Tuesday that Victorian farmers and critical agricultural workers who live outside the NSW-Victoria border bubble­ would now have a pathway to enter the state.

Under the new system, Victor­ians can access a “highly specialised critical services permit” on a case-by-case basis to move and work anywhere in NSW within 100km of the border.

Samantha O’Toole, the mayor of Balonne Shire, across the border from Moree in Queensland, has asked for her community to be include­d in the NSW-Qld safe travel zone, allowing access to medical care, education and work without having to quarantine afterwards. She also wants the time it takes to get a permit improved, saying the five-day wait was “ludicrous” and “unrealistic”.

“Last time I checked I had an Australian passport, not a Queensland one,” Ms O’Toole said.