MP Janelle Saffin is busy lobbying the Queensland Health Department, starting at the top with its minister Steven Miles, to unravel a number of uncertainties arising from the weekend's state border closure.
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Specifically Ms Saffin said she is clarifying the status of health workers travelling across the border, and pushing for the inclusion of Urbenville in the 'border bubble' which determines where cross-border residents can freely travel.
The Queensland Government appears to have set the southern border of this bubble to include postcodes contiguous with the border. Due to the vagaries of the postcode areas (presumably due to delivery routes) there are some conspicuous gaps. These gaps exclude obvious candidates for cross-border traffic like Urbenville and, farther west, North Star from the bubble.
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"How could you put in Woodenbong and not Urbenville," Ms Saffin said.
"Warwick is the commercial centre for many Urbenville residents, including farmers accessing the livestock saleyards there.
"The Urbenville clinic treats patients from Woodenbong.
"It just makes sense."
Any border bubble residents venturing outside the bubble farther into NSW, declared a hotspot in its entirety by the Qld Government, would then have to wait 14 days before they could cross the border.
Ms Saffin is also trying to clarify procedures for those in her electorate needing to travel into Queensland for medical appointments and treatments. For many Tenterfield residents their medical specialists are in Toowoomba if not Brisbane. On a border resident's pass they can only travel as far as Warwick.
Ms Saffin urged anyone with these concerns to contact her office (phone (02) 6621 3624 or email lismore@parliament.nsw.gov.au) to add weight to her representations to the Qld government.
