MEMBER for Mildura Ali Cupper’s fellow western Victorian sitting members have declined to make a joint bid to establish a travel bubble between South Australia and their regions.
Ms Cupper on Wednesday sought support from Member for Lowan Emma Kealy and Member for South-West Coast Roma Britnell to gauge their interest in preparing a joint submission to South Australian Premier Steven Marshall to establish a “travel bubble” between South Australia and western Victoria.
This followed South Australia scrapping plans to open its border with Victoria on July 20 due to concerns over the rise in coronavirus cases in Melbourne.
“They both indicated they have been doing lobbying efforts of their own, so I will now work parallel to their efforts, hopefully with the support of the three mayors (on the Victorian side of the border),” Ms Cupper said.
Ms Cupper contacted the mayors of West Wimmera Shire and Glenelg Shire as well as Mildura Mayor Simon Clemence and counterparts on the South Australian side of the border seeking their support to relax border restrictions for members of their communities.
“I have also written to Renmark Paringa Mayor Neil Martinson, who has already shown support for the travel bubble concept, as well as Member for Chaffey Tim Whetstone about the issue,” she said.
“The more people involved in lobbying Mr Marshall and the South Australian Government, the more likely they will get a better understanding of how adversely border communities are being impacted by the border closure.”
Mr Marshall on Wednesday was asked in a press conference specifically about opening the border to centres such as Mildura, which had no recent coronavirus cases.
“I think that is definitely the general direction we are heading,” Mr Marshall said. “Moving away from locking up the entire nation, down to localised hot spot management orientation.
“I know (the transition committee) will be looking very closely at the ACT and New South Wales, they could be looking at other areas of Victoria — for example the western end of Victoria is a possibility, not at the moment, but again we keep looking at that data.”
Ms Cupper said Mr Marshall’s comments were “heartening” to hear.
“Especially in light of how we’ve been inundated over the past 36 hours by constituents with messages and phone calls of absolute desperation,” she said.
“People are desperately anxious to see their loved ones at this point in time — we’ve had stories of kids at uni and boarding school, grandkids and grandparents have been separated, stories of babies being born who are months and weeks old with aunts and uncles and grandparents unable to see those kids.
“It’s quite heart-wrenching stuff, it’s something we are just not accustomed to in a country where we usually have free and open borders.”
Ms Cupper said she fully understood Mr Marshall’s position so far to keep South Australia closed to Victoria.
“We absolutely respect Steven Marshall’s right to do what he needs to do to protect his primary concern, which is the residents and citizens of South Australia,” she said.
“We are suggesting when you think about those unique circumstances for towns along the border, it justifies a separate safety appraisal to Melbourne because our numbers across the western border have been so consistently low and stable for such a long time.”
