Locals slam Queensland’s proposal to move its border with NSW 7km south

Locals have slammed Queensland’s proposal to move its chaotic border 7km further south into New South Wales. 

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk on Monday pushed for the Tweed-Coolangatta coronavirus border checkpoints to be relocated to the other side of the Tweed River in northern NSW. 

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian agreed there was a need to ease traffic congestion and the separation of the border community but resisted the move.    

‘If anything, the border should be moved north. There is zero infection in northern NSW at this stage,’ she said.  

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk (pictured) on Monday pushed for the boundary to be moved after drivers repeatedly got stuck in queues for several hours at checkpoints

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian (pictured) called for the border to move north into Queensland 

‘We’ll do the right thing by residents on both sides of the border but I have no intention of changing things as yet,’ she explained.   

Thousands of locals in border towns such as Tweed Heads and Coolangatta have been grappling with the restrictions for more than four months. 

The proposed move would see two of Tweed Shire’s most populated suburbs – Banora Point and Tweed Heads – join with the Gold Coast. 

Tweed Shire Mayor Katie Milne said she was ‘strongly opposed’ to pushing the border further south.   

‘This would just move the problem further into our shire and create even more chaos for our community,’ she told Daily Mail Australia.

‘While we understand and support the Queensland Government’s border controls, this has had a devastating effect on our community and businesses. 

‘They need to take responsibility to fix the delays or bear the burden in their own state not ours.

‘More needs to be done right now to alleviate the massive delays as people are suffering badly and businesses are going to the wall,’ she explained.       

Drivers have been forced to sit in traffic jams (pictured above) that stretch for kilometres while Queensland border police conduct careful checks on each car

Those who have visited Victoria or a NSW coronavirus hotspots are banned from entering Queensland and risk a $4,003 fine (Queensland border checkpoint pictured on July 10) 

No Tweed councillors have publicly backed the border move and Tweed MP Geoff Provest described the border issue as a ‘festering sore’ that had ‘killed tourism’. 

‘It has had a massive effect on businesses just south of the border, where a lot of people from Queensland holiday,’ he said. 

Drivers have been forced to sit in two-hour-long queues that stretch for kilometres while border police conduct careful checks on each car.      

Anyone who has visited Victoria or a NSW coronavirus hotspot is banned from entering Queensland and risks a $4,003 fine if they cross into the state. 

A 700m long wall was set up along Dixon Street in Coolangatta (pictured) at the NSW/Queensland border after reports drivers had been avoiding checkpoints by using backstreets

Tweed locals said the separation of the border community (pictured) has had a devastating impact

A 700m long wall was also set up at the border along Dixon Street in Coolangatta after reports that drivers and locals had been avoiding checkpoints. 

Gold Coast chief superintendent Mark Wheeler said the idea arose after people were caught using alternative routes to sneak into Queensland.

‘We were finding people were encroaching across the fencing that was there and coming into Queensland technically unlawfully,’ he said.      

It comes as the number of COVID-19 cases in Queensland remain low while Victoria and NSW are grappling to contain outbreaks. 

Queensland recorded one new case of coronavirus on Monday, taking the total number of active cases in the state to two.  

Sneaky travellers have been caught jumping over the wall set up at the border