By Dominique Tassell
Border residents were once more dealt a blow over the weekend when their border passes were unexpectedly cancelled.
Residents with the post code 2476 received a text stating that their address indicated they were in Kyogle Council and as a result their passes were no longer valid.
Kyogle Council was added to the restricted border zone at 1am on Saturday 2 October, and has the same area code as locations such as Legume and Koreelah.
While border residents were not in a restricted area, the oversight caused chaos at the border on Saturday.
Margaret Grayson stated that it caused a “huge mess”
She says those in charge should be looking at local government areas, not postcodes.
“We have to put out address on our border pass declaration so a mistake like this should never happen,” she says.
Many residents did not receive the text due to poor mobile coverage, and arrived at the border without realising their passes had been deemed invalid overnight.
Margaret says she received the text, but would have appreciated a follow up one acknowledging the mistake.
“Common courtesy would be nice.”
Another resident of the border area said that he contacted Queensland Health to let them know of the mistake on Saturday morning, and they had the attitude that everyone could simply reapply.
He questioned why the issue was not rectified in the hours between the text being sent at 8pm on Friday and people arriving at the border in the morning.
Residents shouldn’t have had to deal with that, he says.
He also called the Queensland Police, who said they can’t do anything but follow directives but thanked him for the notification.
He says police at the border were wonderful, and used their common sense to decide who to let through.
The resident we spoke to says situations like this only contribute to border residents feeling like second rate citizens.
“They knew at 8:10pm that they had a situation and they did nothing,” he says.
“It was not a good day on the border.”
He says he heard of multiple people only getting the text when they arrived at the crossing due to bad coverage.
“I think that’s the thing that’s got up the community’s nose,” he says.
Multiple residents reportedly phoned Queensland Health.
The resident we spoke to says he sent them an email outlining what had occurred and he’s heard nothing.
“It’s disgusting of Queensland Health,” he says.
“They’re hiding from it, they’re really hiding from it.
“They’ve gone to ground.”
He says part of the problem is there’s no awareness of the situation out here, as many residents also highlighted in our article last week.
“They’re getting away with it because no one knows about it,” he says.
Speaking on the topic of mental health in border residents, as highlighted in our article last week, he says there “is a lot of angst going on”.
“We get very little assistance from New South Wales up here,” he says.
That being said, after calling the New South Wales help line, he says he got a call from “someone way up in the food chain who was very concerned about it all”.
Reportedly, state representatives on both sides are now working on this and the cross border commissioner is also involved.
The resident we spoke to says he believes this has really galvanised the community.
He says he has never seen Killarney people so angry about how those living on the New South Wales side of town are being treated.
“People are being so supportive,” he says.
While residents reported last week that they felt ‘othered’ in town, the resident we spoke to says he knows their hands are tied when it comes to the bubble.
He says it’s not necessarily that residents are doing anything to make New South Wales residents feel this way, but it’s the system in place that contributes to it.
“We can’t even attend KAPA meetings and be a part of it,” he says.
Queensland Health was contacted for comment, and replied that “QPS manage border passes, so you’ll need to direct your question to them”.
Queensland Police Services was also contacted, and stated that they would look into it.
They later followed up by stating that “an SMS message was sent to 850 X Pass holders listed as being in Kyogle around 8pm on Friday
evening”.
“This was to advise them that their X Pass was invalid due to Kyogle moving to the Restricted Area
in the Border Zone at 1am Saturday morning, and if eligible to apply for an X/XR Pass which was
live in the system from 8pm Friday night.
“The QPS is not in receipt of information about persons outside the Kyogle area having their
passes cancelled.”
While it may be as simple as someone inputting a postcode into a system on a computer, it speaks to the larger issue at hand.
The people in charge do not know our area, and they do not fully understand how their actions impact our people.
