Queensland to enforce hard border closure with NSW and ACT from Saturday
Queensland will close its borders to most people from New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory from Saturday, including “hard” road closures and forced quarantine measures for returning residents.
The premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, made the surprise announcement on Wednesday morning.
She said authorities remained concerned about “continuous breaches” of border measures by people making false declarations to gain entry to Queensland.
This includes recent evidence people who had visited the greater Sydney area – declared by Queensland as a coronavirus hotspot – then travelled to Canberra to board direct flights into Queensland.
The ACT has no active cases, but is now also declared a hotspot by Queensland authorities.
“We’ve seen that Victoria is not getting better and we’re not going to wait for NSW to get worse, we need to act, and we’ve taken the decisive decision to act,” Palaszczuk said.
“Today is the day I say to Queenslanders, we’ve listened to you. Today is the day we say we’re putting Queenslanders first.
Queensland borders will close to NSW and the ACT from 1am this Saturday, August 8.
This hard border closure puts Queenslanders first.#COVID19au pic.twitter.com/K5VZkPQK9F— Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) August 4, 2020
The state health minister, Steven Miles, said the road border from NSW would be subject to a “hard closure” and that only a few vehicles – including freight and residents of northern NSW border communities – would be allowed to cross.
Some exemptions would be allowed, but these would be “rare”.
The road border to the Northern Territory would remain open, but photo ID would be required as part of the process of obtaining a border pass.
“This is a hard closure,” Miles said. “This is all about keeping Queenslanders safe and catching anyone who tries to lie to get into our state.”
The new border closure – the strictest measures yet – was announced on Thursday, after Labor had spent days running election advertising criticising the Liberal National party opposition for its earlier calls to allow more freedom of movement.
64 TIMES.
That's how many times Deb Frecklington called for the Queensland borders to be opened.
Annastacia Palaszczuk and Labor are listening to the health advice, because we know it's the fastest way we can get Queenslanders working again.#qldpol #qldjobs pic.twitter.com/REI5uibl2g— Queensland Labor (@QLDLabor) August 4, 2020
The issue will likely dominate the campaign ahead of the election in late October.
Opinion polls show overwhelming support for Palaszczuk’s handling of the coronavirus situation, but the LNP marginally ahead of Labor in two-party-preferred terms.
As Labor doubled down by heightening its restrictions and attacking the LNP, the LNP leader Deborah Frecklington released a statement saying she supported the latest move.
“Queenslanders must be kept safe to protect lives and livelihoods,” she said.
“The LNP has always said the border controls are not set and forget. As the situation in other states changes so should our response in Queensland.
‘“In recent weeks it has become clear that the Palaszczuk Labor government’s honour system at the border was not working. The gaps in enforcement have put Queenslanders’ lives and livelihoods at risk.
“The LNP supports stronger action on borders because we can’t risk a second wave.”
Queensland detected one new coronavirus case yesterday, a 48-year-old woman from the West Moreton area. The source of the infection is under investigation.
Palaszczuk said the decision to close the borders to NSW and the ACT was made after a meeting of the state disaster management group early on Wednesday morning.
She said the decision was partly based on a desire to avoid the economic costs of a second lockdown, similar to the situation in Melbourne.
“It’s a very concerning situation that we are seeing – the lockdown happening in Victoria, and the huge impact that that is having on the economy,” Palaszczuk said.
“And our hearts go out to Victoria. We know they’ll get through this together, and we will continue to monitor what’s happening down there.
Related: Victoria-NSW border communities brace for 'enormous heartache' as lockdown measures loom
“I know it’s going to be tough on Queenslanders, but your health comes first.
“We need to protect not only our health, we need to protect the families, we need to protect our economy. We’ve seen what’s happened in Victoria. We don’t want to see that happening here.
“Businesses have said to me, loudly and clearly, that they do not want to go backwards. They want to stay where they are. And we need Queenslanders supporting Queenslanders.
“It’s also very important that Queenslanders stay in Queensland. Now is not the time to travel to NSW. Now is not the time to travel to Victoria. I will not risk the safety of Queenslanders and I will not risk our economy.”
