A Message from Mayor Katrina Humphries

With a heavy heart I wish to ask our community some very relevant questions.

In light of COVID 19 our world has changed and our local environment area is now being heavily impacted with the unmanageable restrictions being put on our residents by the Queensland Government.

Is the time coming for our families to start pulling their children out of Queensland schools? We have a basic human right to be able to see our kids, with border closures our accessibility to our kids is non-existent, and is this good for families? Anxiety levels are enormous non only from the parents but also from the students.

Has the time come for our Northern NSW residents to seek medical services in NSW? At a time of uncertainty should we be making arrangements for our health needs to be catered for in NSW as urgent health treatment has no warning.

When it comes to planning limited breaks, and we all need them, look at NSW areas, we can move freely with good planning and abiding by COVID 19 management rules, so plan for a break in NSW.

We have a bumper harvest coming (God willing) and if our markets in Queensland are un reachable perhaps the time is coming to prepare to sell to NSW based companies so we can keep our cash flows happening.

These questions need to be asked, I believe. We have to work out a way of living with COVID 19 for the time being and sadly for Queensland it appears they do not want or need our long time and fruitful relationship to continue. None of us need fair weather friends and most importantly we need to be able to function to the best of our ability.

If that ability comes through necessity, we have to make plans to deal with it. We are very fortunate to have options for now, and these questions need to be asked, talked about and very sadly possibly enacted on.