The Northern Rivers and Gold Coast communities that sit on either side of the NSW and Queensland borders have always been intertwined. Business, health, family, work and education are all impacted by the hard border closure. Now Members of Parliament (MP), Councillors and Member of the Legislative Council (MLC) from all sides of the political spectrum and both sides of the border are calling for the establishment of a Tweed Cross Border Community Zone as a solution to combat the growing border crisis.
Tweed Shire Mayor Chris Cherry spoke on behalf of the leaders saying ‘Every day we’re hearing case after case of the dire impacts the border closure is having on our families and businesses across the Northern Rivers’.
‘All our specialist [health] services are on the Gold Coast, it is a simple matter of geography. That is something that may not be fully understood by people who are not in our border region,’ Mayor Cherry told The Echo last week.
‘Sydney is close to 1,000km away and the services across the border in Queensland are our local services.’
Share your stories
If you are a business or an individual that has been impacted either from the Northern Rivers region or the Gold Coast, your stories are relevant and the group are asking that you fill out a survey to let them know the challenges and issues you are facing.
Tweed Shire Mayor Chris Cherry told The Echo they hope that a border checkpoint at teh Tweed and Byron Shire border will be a pilot project that will lead to the establishment of a Northern Rivers border zone ensuring businesses and residents can move as needed between southern Queensland and northern NSW as was previously the case with the border bubble.
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