VICTORIANS, well some Victorians, are again allowed to dip their toes in the Murray River.
What wonderful progress from our state premiers. What a wonderfully giving concession.
The latest amendment to NSW’s public health order allows a person who has been in Victoria in the past 14 days – but not in a restricted area or COVID-19 area of concern – to enter NSW by accessing the Murray River without the need for a permit, provided that they do not enter an embankment, dock, port or wharf on the northern side of the river.
In a nutshell, the NSW Government is again graciously allowing a rower from Mildura to put his or her oars in the water. It is allowing a dad and his boy to even get out on their little boat for a fish. Or even go for a swim. And, get this, the Government says you don’t even need a permit.
If I am sounding condescending, then that is exactly the point.
That regional Victorians were ever denied access to the river for recreational use will go down as one of the most farcical “COVID-safe” measures that our state governments have come up with during his pandemic. And that is from a painfully long list.
I could never quite figure out what the NSW Premier’s fear was in allowing Victorians into the water.
Forget about the fact that most border communities haven’t seen a case of coronavirus for months, did Gladys Berijiklian think the sneaky Mildura rowers were going to paddle across the Murray, offload their boats in the bush, and escape into NSW? Never mind that there would be no car or accommodation waiting on the other side? Perhaps she feared that father and son would ditch their dinghy and their fishing rods and hitchhike to Sydney?
Fortunately, the NSW Government’s announcement this week was a long overdue step towards sanity returning.
But it needs to go further.
And by further that means getting rid of the border barriers altogether.
Do it today. Remove the police and the ADF from their posts all along the Murray River and let them get back to doing work that they should be doing.
This isn’t being reckless.
Gladys, consider the numbers.
Regional Victoria’s rolling 14-day average case numbers sit at 0.3. Out of millions of people, it’s not a lot. So why are we hearing rumours that tents could be set up on Mildura’s Chaffey Bridge to provide shade for police and ADF as if you are settling in for the long haul?
And Gladys, if you glance at the map of Victoria, take note that there are zero active cases along the whole stretch of the Murray. Zero.
Even Melbourne’s new case average has dipped below 20, but if city folk are locked down tight, is the risk of the virus crossing the border from regional Victorians really worth the enormous cost of these border barriers? Is it worth the continuing impost on the lives of people in these border communities? Is it a proportionate response any longer?
The good news this week is that tourism operators on the Victorian side of the Murray River can finally get back to work.
Mildura Paddle Steamers’ Ashton Kreuzer said she was on “cloud nine” after Monday night’s announcement.
“It was a massive weight off our shoulders,” she said.
“From numerous letters to Ministers, phone calls, setbacks, meetings, emails, texts, to finally – a result!”
Ms Kreuzer has since been inundated with calls from regional Victorians wanting to book cruises, with passenger bookings more than doubling last week’s numbers.
For months, communities in COVID-free regions have been crippled financially due to city-centric policy making, but the madness has to stop.
We need rational decision making to return, and part of that must be opening our borders back up
Unless the plan is to wait until this virus is eradicated across Australia, what are they waiting for?
