THE South Australian Government’s continued reluctance to seriously consider relaxing its border closure with regional Victoria is becoming increasingly frustrating and illogical.
Member for Mildura Ali Cupper this week renewed her call for a border bubble with the Mildura LGA – and regional Victoria more broadly – only for the issue to again be ignored by the SA Government.
There are now only three active cases of COVID-19 in regional Victoria and have been none in the Mildura LGA since April.
“Every day, the position of the SA Government is looking less about health and more about politics,” Ms Cupper said on Friday.
“The SA Police Commissioner on Thursday effectively dismissed any easing of the current restrictions in the short term, saying there were ‘no changes forecast at this time’.
“This is incredibly disappointing.
“My office continues to have constituents contacting us daily about being denied access to SA for a range of reasons – medical services being the most common and most pressing issue, and painful separations from grandchildren a close second.
“Given the number of coronavirus cases continues to fall, so does the potential risk, which was minimal with the Mildura LGA anyway given we haven’t had a case since April.
“The borders are already being policed so the resources are in place to control movement into SA.”
Ms Cupper said at the very least, the SA Government should immediately scrap the need for Victorian border community residents to undergo weekly COVID-19 tests in order to cross into SA.
“The weekly COVID-19 testing is an incredible burden for residents of border towns like Murrayville and given there are only three active cases of the virus in Victoria – all hundreds of kilometres away – the current regime seems to be a crazy overreach,” she said.
Ms Cupper also believes it is time for the NSW border zone to be increased to include Broken Hill.
“We have a close association with Broken Hill and believe it would be beneficial to include them in a border zone with Mildura,” she said.
