STATEMENT FROM THE MAYOR - COVID Update Sunday 29 August 2021

Official figures just released show that the Goondiwindi Regional Council area continues to be the Queensland leader for COVID vaccination. Over 70% of our citizens over the age of 15 have received at least one dose of vaccine and 50% of over 15s are now fully vaccinated. This not only puts us at the forefront of our state, but possibly in a nation leading position. Congratulations to our community and all the health professionals involved. Let’s keep going and be one of the first to get to 80%. We do know that vaccination not only saves lives, but reduces serious illness and hospitalisation and will allow us to open up.

There are many things that we can’t control in relation to COVID, including government response, but we are in control of our own actions and preparedness. It is not only my role as your Mayor, but my duty to my community to ensure that we are not only protected, but you are informed, and critically that we are prepared. Last week I issued a statement asking our community to think about what would happen if we had a local COVID case and we were put into lockdown. How would this impact on our businesses, schooling and other day-to-day interactions. Since then I have had a lot of feedback from people across the region saying, that statement has now prompted them to plan for that possibility. Good planning is critical in these circumstances and the one thing that we can control. Our Council has a plan on how we would keep as many services operating as possible. Everyone should have one.

Our businesses are hurting a lot, people on both sides cannot get to work and kids cannot get to school from across the border. The reality is that the impact is being dramatically felt on both sides of the border, no one is immune. I, like everyone want us to enjoy the benefits of one of the best winter crops that we have ever had and the prospect of a bumper summer crop and cotton season. In order to achieve that we have to contain, control and prepare.

Our Council was at the forefront of expanding the border bubble into NSW last year and sorting out anomalies and this work has ensured that at least some restricted access remained under the current Border Zone and its available exemption.

We are also working with the Queensland State Government and industry groups to develop harvest protocols, we want a plan for harvest to continue in a lockdown scenario.

I am pleased to report that this coming week the Goondiwindi Chamber of Commerce will launch positive initiatives to assist business continuity.

I had a conversation with Queensland’s Chief Health Officer over the weekend about what it would take to reinstate our border bubble and free up movement between cross border communities. Her response was that the New South Wales (NSW) Government would have to all but eliminate movement into and out of the bubble from other parts of NSW.  Otherwise there can be no effective containment of risk within the bubble and for cross border communities. This places the ball firmly in the court of NSW authorities, as it can only be. The state-wide lock down of NSW is the prerogative of their government, as is any move to limit movement in and out of an area of their own state to facilitate a bubble.

I also warned last week about what would happen if COVID came across the border. Again that was confronting for many. At that stage the known cases were hundreds of kilometres away in NSW. The news over the weekend that COVID traces has been found in Moree’s sewerage is a stark warning and puts it on our doorstep. With Queensland Health advising they wish to activate sewerage testing in our region, Council will start testing of its own sewerage water very soon.

I will continue to keep the community up to date and request that our shared cross border community, as frustrating and difficult as the current situation is, keep informed, prepared and understand that reality of what we are dealing with, much of which is out of our control.

I hope that what we must plan for never eventuates.