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QLD border exemptions granted to essential NSW ag workers
Elizabeth Gracie
The Queensland (QLD) Government will provide travel exemptions and open up its borders to individuals wanting to cross the NSW/QLD border to undergo essential agriculture work across both states.
Minister for Agriculture, David Littleproud said the move was pure common sense and would ensure agriculture supply lines across the country stay open.
“Our time critical agricultural supply chains, regional economies and livelihoods depend on the urgent resolution of these border issues,” said Littleproud.
Whilst the exemptions will apply to most agribusinesses dotted on both sides of state lines, the exemptions do not apply to seasonal workers.
Goondiwindi Regional Council Mayor Lawrence Springborg believes this could become a major issue as Australia rolls into spring, Australia’s peak growing time for the horticultural industry. .
“That will become more of an issue as we head into the growing season and towards the picking season, and I would hope this would be resolved by then,” said Springborg.
Prospective workers will also be required to meet a set of travel requirements, even if they have been granted an exemption to travel.
For QLD agriculture workers travelling to NSW to work, they must remain at the agribusiness or farm they are employed as much as feasibly possible until they return to QLD.
For NSW agriculture workers travelling to QLD to work, they must only remain in QLD for the necessary length of time they must work within a fourteen-day window where they must also isolate to the best of their ability.
To apply, workers will need to obtain a letter of exemption to travel across the border from either a local council office or a police station on the border.
When speaking with the ABC, Angus Ferries from the Granite Belt Grower’s Association said the new exemptions were of critical importance to the growing regions dotted across the state lines.
“We’ve got say half a dozen major businesses that farm either side of the border, but then we’ve got NSW-based producers who have Stanthorpe in the heart of the Granite Belt as their nearest local town”.
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