Anne Webster (Mallee, National Party) Share this | Hansard source

The COVID-19 pandemic has had wide-ranging and devastating impacts. My electorate of Mallee is in the unique and unenviable position of bordering two states that have taken hardline, parochial approaches to the management of the virus. For the Victorian, New South Wales and South Australian state governments, the statement 'All in this together' has lost its meaning. Regional Australians, particularly those living in cross-border communities, including Mildura, Robinvale, Swan Hill, Murrayville, Kaniva and Edenhope, are being left behind. These communities are being decimated by unwarranted and unconstitutional border restrictions. I've heard from families, businesses, farmers, agricultural workers, students, teachers and healthcare workers. These people are telling me that their health is at risk, their business is losing money or closing, they are missing out on shifts and their education is suffering. Although I have been contacted by many different people, in keeping with this motion today, I will focus on the stories shared with me by women and about women to highlight how the decisions taken by state governments are affecting their daily lives. In just over a week, I have been contacted by over 30 people with urgent medical issues who would normally rely on medical services in South Australia for treatment and ongoing care. Whether it's a woman that needs to go to South Australia to visit her obstetrician, or the mother of a young child with cancer, women are being hurt by the decision taken by the South Australian government to close their border to Victoria. Last week I heard from Marcia, a woman from Underbool with kidney cancer, who has been denied an exemption for ongoing chemotherapy that she desperately needs. Joanne from Kaniva is pregnant for the third time in 12 months, after two devastating miscarriages. She knows that this is a high-risk pregnancy and needs continuous and ongoing care. Unfortunately, the new border measures mean that she has been denied access to her regular obstetrician in Adelaide. Sally, also from Kaniva, sadly has terminal cancer. Her immune system is compromised due to chemotherapy, so she's rarely left her farm since the pandemic arrived in Australia. She is now being denied her medical care because, as a Victorian, she apparently poses a risk to South Australia.

Not only are these border restrictions affecting the health of women and their families, the closures are also affecting their livelihoods and educational outcomes. Take Kristy from Sea Lake. Kristy is in her final year of her Bachelor of Nursing at the University of South Australia. She is on track to complete her course by the end of this year but needs to go to Adelaide to complete a four-hour practical trial in order to graduate. She applied for an exemption but has been denied, meaning her ability to graduate has been cast in doubt.

I've spoken to Michaela from Maryborough, who is entering the second year of her studies in medicine at the University of Wollongong. Her family, with two young children, was planning to move to Wollongong to support Michaela through her studies. They've sold their home and business in Maryborough but will no longer be able to relocate to New South Wales due to the border closure. Her educational outcomes and her family's financial security are at risk.

Several mums who live in Victoria and send their kids to school in Tooleybuc in New South Wales have also contacted me. Due to a change in the border permit system, these mothers are now unable to send their kids to school because they live outside the arbitrary border zone identified by the New South Wales government, sometimes by as little as two kilometre. Lisa, for example, lives one kilometre outside the border zone. Lisa and her husband grow wheat, barley, canola, chickpeas, lentils and lupins. She provides a critical service to this nation. Not only will her children's education suffer but the increased pressure from homeschooling will mean the farm will suffer too. Lisa's children are among 22 who are now no longer able to travel to Tooleybuc—to go across the bridge to school.

These are just a handful of the hundreds of stories that have been shared with me and other border MPs over the past few weeks. COVID-19 is not present in the border regions, and the blunt control measures cited in relation to it are neither lawful under the Constitution nor justified in practical terms. These parochial decisions by rival state governments are hurting women and their families in my electorate. I implore the state governments to reconsider their approaches to these border restrictions and develop workable solutions for our border communities.

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