SGC President, Hilary Jacobs, calls for consideration on border

Southern Gold Coast Chamber of Commerce President, Hilary Jacobs, says that "Every year when the clocks change in NSW, the Chamber gets asked about the 1-hour difference one side of the street to the other. Right now we are thinking about the one hour difference because it's taking that long to actually cross the borderline when heading north! Or more.". Hilary remains a passionate advocate for small business regarding the current border closures, previously calling out the Queensland Government for a “lack of consistency” on border closures causing "complete uncertainty" for the future of border businesses.

You can see President Hilary Jacobs official statement below:

 

This week has seen the cross border community put to the severest test yet. We all understand the need for caution, however anyone who lives one side of the border and works the other side, or has an appointment the other side is now being impacted by checks on nearly every vehicle on the norther journey. We get it, but this was never intended to impact the cross border residents like it is now. People are missing or cancelling appointments. Any cross border activity has to be reconsidered, not because of the passes, which we now need every week, but because of the way they are being dealt with at the border. EVERYONE now gets the same letter, and everyone is being asked about if they have been to the hotspots because there is no way of telling who’s who in the line-up.

Instead what about having to give your driving license number so your home address can be verified when you apply for a pass and then getting a big L for local and sent down a different route at the crossing, or a different lane. No Pass No way through, but at least we could have some hope of not losing that border hour every time we set out? .

The COVID-19 pandemic has shown the QLD/NSW border is a real issue which needs to be addressed. Moving the border to the Tweed River would mean at least the Tweed Heads community wouldn't lose an hour and the current border crossing issue would be made a little less cumbersome. And in the meantime to save an hour please can we have a LOCALS Pass for the border and a separate route or LOCALS only lanes, as this is now MUCH worse than it was when the border was CLOSED!