Victoria-South Australia border rules are crushing livelihoods

State government cross-border rules are failing regional communities, writes Natalie Kotsios. And here’s why.

Victoria and South Australia border check point at Pinnaroo. Picture: Tait Schmaal

IT’S truly remarkable, isn’t it? 

Somehow, the bureaucratic machine can organise to bring 300 international students to South Australia, in the face of global travel restrictions. Necessary for the state’s economy, they blithely say.

Mmm. You know what else is good for the economy? Letting people get to work and school, access critical medical care, transport essential goods and services, just to name a few.

Right now, thousands along the SA-Victorian border are waiting for their everyday lives to be upturned from Friday, when SA’s near-total border shutdown comes into force. 

They are warning of the devastating impact it will have on these cross-border towns, where communities and livelihoods aren’t bound by lines on a map; so far their cries for action are falling on deaf ears in the SA Government.

But by all means, please, bring on the international arrivals.

The SA announcement is just one of many inconsistencies seen right across the country since states began enforcing border shutdowns.

Time and again, state governments operating out of capital cities have shown they have no understanding of how cross-border life works.

When the Victorian-NSW border closure was first announced six weeks ago, it seemed collegiate and even logical: the message was it was a mutual decision, one for the benefit of all.

But since that initial announcement, nothing about it has seemed mutual. Victorian-NSW border residents have woken up several times to snap decisions overnight by the NSW Government, that have tightened restrictions without properly communicating or thinking through what those changes mean.

Consider the ban on seasonal workers from Victoria, which NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian so confidently declared wouldn’t have any impact of the harvest workforce.

Plenty of unemployed Aussies to do the work, right?

Tell that to the citrus growers who lost $13 million of the crop in a week before the ban was overturned.

It goes without saying, but we’ll say it again: No one wants coronavirus to spread further.

The health precautions, including border restrictions, are needed to limit that risk, and most regional Australians are happy to do their bit.

They also understand it’s a fast-moving situation.

Rules and recommendations are made quickly, as new information comes to hand.

But it’s the job of state governments to apply them in a way that makes sense for all citizens.

Instead, the states’ parochial actions on cross-border rules completely belie the “we’re all in this together” rhetoric.

● Natalie Kotsios is The Weekly Times National Affairs reporters

MORE

AGRICULTURE PERMIT FOR VIC FARMERS TO CROSS INTO NSW

NSW, SA BORDER RESTRICTIONS THREATEN AG AND LIVELIHOODS

SPECIALIST FIFO WORKERS EXEMPT FROM BORDER LOCKDOWN