Businesses in the ACT's cross-border communities are concerned about the prospect of border restrictions, with one winery fearing it could be the "nail in the coffin" even if permits are issued to allow movement within the wider Canberra region.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The ACT government is continuing to prepare for the possibility that it might need to impose border restrictions to shield the territory from potential COVID-19 outbreaks in regional NSW, although it maintains such a move would be an "absolute last resort".
Planning work with the NSW government and neighboring councils has focused on the idea of establishing a Canberra region "safety bubble", which would allow residents in communities bordering the ACT, such as Queanbeyan and Yass, to continue commuting to the territory.
Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith indicated that a permit system could be used to allow cross-border travel within the region. She said the boundaries for any regional bubble had yet to be defined.
Sarah McDougall, the co-owner of Lake George Winery in Collector, said her business might have to shut even with a permit system in place because of the likely decrease in visitors from Canberra.
"What we found in COVID [so far] was even though the border was open, Canberrans were still reluctant to cross the border and come and visit us even to come and buy some wine," Mrs McDougall said.
"I really think that would also stop traffic on the Federal Highway which our business was very reliant on.
"Not only have we been hit by COVID ... the Canberra wine region was hit by smoke [during the bushfires] and we lost a lot of crop. So this is just another, dare I say it, nail in the coffin."
Sharon Isherwood, who owns Sharwood Hampers in Bungendore, travels to Canberra six days a week to deliver gift hampers to customers.
Mrs Isherwood said a hard border closure would "almost entirely" stop her business from operating.
"Those orders that go into corporate businesses, you know, that would affect those businesses as well," she said.
She said border checkpoints would also create delays for commuters, which would be problematic for families whose children attended school in Canberra, such as her's.
"I have three children who go to school in Canberra, and I time my deliveries around collecting them for school. I don't want them going on the bus because it's another transmission point for the virus," Mrs Isherwood said.
Ms Stephen-Smith said a spike in community transmission of COVID-19 in the surrounding region would be a trigger for the ACT government to move to strengthen its borders.
There were no new cases in the Batemans Bay cluster reported on Tuesday, nor any cases in the entire southern NSW health district.
Ms Stephen-Smith said it was "really important that we keep our borders open" given the number of people commuting between Canberra and the border towns every day.
She said the ACT was prepared to act swiftly to impose restrictions if the situation dramatically and rapidly escalated, but stressed it was the government's intention that the community was provided with at least a few days notice before changes were made.
"We know that in this situation, in this global pandemic, that things have changed really quickly," she said.
"Things that we imagined we might do, we didn't do ... and things we imagined we might never do, we ended up doing."
Meanwhile, NSW has moved to strengthen its border with Victoria with a introduction of a tough new permit system.
READ MORE:
Border residents who obtain permits will only be able to travel for work, education, health care and to buy supplies within the boundaries of a designated "border zone".
If a border resident travels beyond the designated border zone, they will be required to self-isolate for 14 days after they return to NSW.
