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Class action lawsuit a border fiasco option

By Bruce Simmonds - posted Thursday, 26 August 2021


There's nothing obvious in the history of the border to rule out such temporary amendments. The line defining the Queensland/ New South Wales border dates back to surveying work in the 1860s using rocks and trees as survey markers.

The Mayor of the Tweed Shire desperately hopes her local government area can be brought under Queensland's border protections, as the Covid cases creep north toward her shire.

Chris Cherry wants the border to be moved south to encompass all of the Tweed Shire, which is yet to see a case of the virus. But Ms Cherry admits time is running out for any rescue plan to be implemented.

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"There is a desperation that people are feeling, it has to be now, it has to happen," she told media.

Coolangatta has become a focal point for the border standoff with police roadblocks to check every vehicle entering the state. Tensions have been high, tempers have flared, fines have been issued and all the while there's the fear of who will be the one to bring Covid over the border into Queensland?

"It's like a waiting game," Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuktold media of the prospect someone will bring the Delta variant into Queensland from NSW. "Any day, this could change, and we need to be ready."

Fears have been heightened after two truck drivers with Covid-19 travelled into the state from NSW. They tested positive in NSW but negative in Queensland. Suggestions are they are not high risk. But it shows how fragile the border has become.

Deputy Queensland Premier Steven Miles has been an advocate of a hard border closure.

"The border is our riskiest place right now" he says and tensions over the tightened Queensland/ NSW border are mounting, after a mass protest on Sunday when more than 2000 people gathered on both sides of the Coolangatta checkpoint, protesting against Covid-19 restrictions and border measures.

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Inevitably the issue has become very political. If it was not a Labour electorate then the Federal government would step up. Local Labor MP Justine Elliot and some local mayors and councillors have called on fellow Liberal and Nationals state MPs to support a Northern Rivers border checkpoint 'to keep our community safe and to protect local jobs and businesses'.

However bipartisan support appears unlikely 'owing to a range of legal and regulatory issues', according to Nationals MLC Ben Franklin, who backed his leader John Barilaro's views in a COVID-19 briefing that 'moving the border becomes another cliff edge for another community'.

I think the National party members need to step up and do more. I believe the late Doug Anthony would have done so.

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About the Author

Bruce Simmonds is a solicitor of the Supreme Court of Queensland and Supreme Court of New South Wales. He is the commercial and litigation partner of Parker Simmonds Solicitors and Lawyers at Broadbeach on Queensland's Gold Coast. He has practiced extensively in commercial law and personal injuries. He also works in all other areas of litigation and mediation.

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