SOUTH Australia reopening its border giving Victorians full access to that State from December 1 will be welcome relief to people from the Mildura electorate.

“Common sense has finally prevailed,” Member for Mildura Ali Cupper said after SA Premier Steven Marshall made the announcement on Friday.

“The SA border fully reopening without the need for quarantine will be so welcomed by all those people who have been denied access to their medical specialists in Adelaide; to grandparents who haven’t seen their grandchildren since March; for businesses and our economy.

“We have a close bond with South Australia. Adelaide is our closest capital city and so many of us have connections with the State.”

The SA border will reopen a week after New South Wales, which will allow free access into that State from November 23.

Ms Cupper said States needed to learn the lessons from the hard border closures and their impacts on people’s lives and livelihoods.

“We can’t just have the borders reopen and that’s the end of it,” she said.

“States and the Commonwealth need to get together to investigate whether arbitrarily closing borders is an effective and fair policy.

“I have been arguing all along that restrictions like border closures need to be proportionate to risk.

“With regards to border closures, I would argue governments need to consult more with border communities about the impacts, their needs and their realities.

“Far too often we have seen decisions made by politicians or bureaucrats who have no understanding of how border communities work – only to see the rules then change time after time once the realities were spelt out to them.

“The ad-hoc approach to border closures can not happen again.

“All the States claim they are following health advice, but their approaches have all been so different. We need a more structured approach that takes particular consideration of border communities.”