Class action lawsuit a border fiasco option

There are growing fears that the Covid pandemic is out of control in NSW and Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has warned of immediate lockdowns in Queensland if the virus sneaks into the state.

But tightened border restrictions on who can enter Queensland have threatened the livelihoods of thousands of Tweed residents and businesses that depend on cross-border movements.

The border move rejection has re-stoked the fires between the states with the NSW government showing it is completely out of touch with the people on the Tweed.

Thousands of Coolangatta-Tweed residents are stuck either side of the border and unable to commute to businesses and schools after Queensland slammed the border shut. Teachers and even non essential health workers are shut out, families have been split apart and social media is alive with the fury of those who cannot travel to and from Queensland each day for work or education.

Tweed Mayor Chris Cherry says the Queensland-New South Wales border checkpoints need to be south of the shire.

"Where it is currently has more than 16,000 people trying to cross each day for work, we need to find a solution that allows our community to operate with southeast Queensland" she says.

Everyone thinks it's logical and common sense to adjust the border to help businesses and workers survive the economic crisis caused by the pandemic.

Some have wondered whether Clive Palmer's failed legal bid to challenge the Western Australian hard border closure in 2020 could be a precedent in this matter.

Palmer's challenge centred on the freedom of movement between states, guaranteed in section 92 of the Constitution.

However the High Court rejected his claim and found WA's hard border with the rest of Australia was justified to prevent a potentially catastrophic event..

The judgment stated there could be no doubt that a law restricting the movement of people into a state was a suitable way of preventing COVID-19 from entering a community.

A temporary move of the Qld/ NSW border does not fall under the Western Australian and Palmer court decisions as it's not necessary to maintain the current border restrictions for the common good.

The border is just a line on a map and people's lives and livelihoods depend on some common sense in this matter. If the political parties won't talk to each other the next people they talk to may be lawyers pursuing a class action lawsuit against them.