A proposal to shift Queensland's border checkpoints further south to relieve traffic delays has been gaining momentum.
Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk yesterday declared she was sending a letter with a "detailed submission" to New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian.
Late in the day, Ms Berejiklian said she was happy to consider "all options" on moving checkpoints.
While the details are yet to be revealed, experts say some legislative and operational issues would need to be resolved first.
What is actually being proposed?
Gold Coast Mayor Tom Tate has been pushing to move the state border 7 kilometres south, but Ms Palaszczuk is fixed on the idea of only moving the five Gold Coast COVID-19 checkpoints towards the Tweed River.
"It would make it much easier operationally, it would keep those two communities together and of course they will remain NSW residents," Ms Palaszczuk said.
"I'm just trying to make it easier for people, but of course if the NSW Government is against it, they're against it. I hope they give it consideration."
What could it involve?
Matthew Burke from Griffith University's Cities Research Institute said state borders were designed to be "frictionless" and not used for border checks — hence the lengthy traffic delays.
"I think the managers are doing the best they can," he said.
"These borders were set up very quickly, they were not designed for stop-and-go control operations, and we've done really well in improving the system.
Queensland COVID-19 snapshot:
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"The issues are about the width that we have available for stop-and-control operations exactly at the border."
If border checkpoints were shifted further south, authorities could possibly do "multi-level processing", Dr Burke said.
"If we can do that safely, so we're not endangering police and others, hopefully we can increase the flow."
Dr Burke said an expensive solution would be to expand the number of border checkpoints or build bespoke physical infrastructure.
"But if it only [lasted] six months, it'd be pretty ineffective," he said.
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Another possible idea is to inform the public about the peak times for queuing.
"If we were able to tell people what to avoid, where they could get an easier run through and where they're likely to be caught in traffic, we could really thin out that traffic demand and moderate those queues, manage them a lot better," he said.
But that still left the issue of pedestrian traffic.
"There are a number of pedestrians who cross the border every day — including school children — so working out some bespoke solutions for that cohort I think is an important thing," Dr Burke said.
Motorists queue at a police checkpoint on the Queensland-NSW border on the Gold Coast.
Ms Palaszczuk is eager to take action to relieve the stress and anger of border residents.(ABC News: Tim Swanston)
Does the constitution allow it?
The state borders themselves are fixed, but University of Queensland constitutional law expert Nicholas Aroney said there was nothing in the constitution stopping the states from repositioning the checkpoints.
But the bottom line would be cooperation.
"They are able to make laws that have extraterritorial effect [but] their ability to execute those laws outside their state depends on cooperation between the states," he said.
"A solution can always be found. The difficulty is doing it quickly because it may require changes in legislation — or it may not. It depends on what the legislation says."
Who would control the checkpoints?
Because it's all about protecting the Queensland border, the State Government believes it should be handled by the Queensland Police Service.
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But shifting the checkpoints would also present some issues to be thrashed out.
For example, Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski told ABC Radio Brisbane that Queensland's Chief Health Officer Jeannette Young's directions only applied within the state.
"Anything that will make it work better for our community and keep it effective at keeping COVID out of our state would be really good but of course there's a lot of legal and operational issues with this that would have to be worked through," he said.
He said "industrious" officers on the Gold Coast have been looking at every option from the beginning and have a good relationship with their counterparts across the Tweed River.
"Of course, if we back things up into the Tweed, it impacts onto NSW as well," Deputy Commissioner Gollschewski said.
Will NSW go for it?
The devil may yet be in the detail, which the NSW Premier stressed yesterday she was yet to see from the Queensland Government.
A woman addresses the media
Gladys Berejiklian says she remains unclear on what is being proposed.(AAP Image: Joel Carrett)
Ms Berejiklian told reporters she had received a "short text" from the Queensland Premier only that morning.
"I'm unclear as to what the Queensland Government is asking us to do because they've not communicated that yet," she said.
"I've heard through the media that I'm receiving the letter, so I look forward to that letter."
She said she was happy to consider all options — and "do the right thing" by residents on both sides — but did not believe the border should be relocated.
"If anything the border should be moved north," she said.
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