Moving Tweed-Coolangatta border 'off the table'
The New South Wales and Queensland government remain at loggerheads over how to manage a border which cuts like a knife through Tweed and Coolangatta.
A potential plan to temporarily move the border checkpoint in the busy Gold Coast region south of the Tweed River appears dead.
The Queensland border is currently closed to all people from NSW, save for a small handful of essential workers, creating chaos for families and businesses in the towns of Tweed and Coolangatta.
READ MORE: Queensland truckie convoy heads for NSW to protest
Queensland Police stop a pedestrian in Griffith street Coolangatta at the Queensland border. The Queensland government has tightened border restrictions for people travelling into the state from NSW, with essential workers only permitted to enter with proof of at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Getty images
Some residents were given as little as two hours notice to get across the border when the initial lockdown announcement was made, with many now forced to take up residences at temporary accommodation facilities such as caravan parks.
Queensland Police Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski, who is heading up discussions with NSW counterparts, told Today that border negotiations are "in an extremely difficult place".
"The challenge for us of course is we are trying to stop an outbreak and NSW is trying to get on top of one," Mr Gollschewski said.
"There are some tensions there."
Mr Gollschewski said negotiations to move a border checkpoint south of the state line raised a number of tricky, insurmountable legal issues.
"NSW is a sovereign state, we have no control over their legislation and what they should do.
"We thought (moving the border) was worth looking at.
"It is off the table."
READ MORE: Border row as NRL family, friends fly to Queensland
Queensland Police stop trucks at the Queensland border in Coolangatta. Getty images
Mr Gollschewski said he wanted to keep the dialogue going "because we know that things can change".
NSW has been regularly recording over 1000 cases of the Delta variant every day.
There is still a travel bubble which allows travel from NSW into Queensland but restrictions are now much tighter, which has raised problems for workers, including health workers and teachers, and split families who live either side of the dividing line.
On Monday Queensland truckies blockaded southbound lanes of the M1 Motorway in the Gold Coast and later around Tweed, in protest over mandatory vaccines to cross the border.
More than 7000 vehicles crossed the Queensland-NSW border yesterday, Mr Gollschewski said.
"Our border allows us to check who is coming in and out of the state so we can control that.
"There is no control of who goes into the Tweed from the other parts of NSW."
EXPLAINED: How to get COVID-19 vaccination: State-by-state guide
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