COMMUNITIES along the NSW-Victoria border should secede and create a new state called Murray, according to Member for Northern Victoria Tim Quilty.
The state Upper House MP said the “total mess” caused by the most recent NSW border restrictions showed why a new state was needed.
Murray would take in towns such as Bendigo, Shepparton and Mildura, and could have Echuca as a central capital, Mr Quilty told ABC Goulburn Murray this week.
He said the current border rules had been written to “buy votes” in Sydney without consideration of regional needs.
“I call it COVID theatre — by pretending to be tough in Sydney, they can win votes there, and the regional voters don’t matter at all,” he said.
“It doesn’t matter that people’s lives are being flipped up, that people’s lives are put at risk.”
Mr Quilty said a new state could take different forms, but his idea centred on the Murray Basin.
He said the Australian Constitution allowed for new states to be created and claimed those who framed it would be “shocked” it hadn’t been done already.
“We wouldn’t have the rules being made in Sydney and Melbourne with no (consideration for) impact on our lives,” he said.
“We would have local politicians who understood our local conditions and would make rules that considered local people.”
At last year’s NSW election, an independent for the seat of Murray who campaigned for a new “Riverina” state attracted only a 2.1 per cent of the vote.
Were a new state to join up the NSW state electorates of Murray, Wagga Wagga and Albury with the five Victorian state seats joining the Murray, it would have a population of about 550,000, more than Tasmania.
