The Member for Murray Plains, Peter Walsh, is urging everyone in river communities to access the NSW Cross-Border Commissioner’s pandemic survey.
Mr Walsh says the online survey – Have your say on border closures during the COVID-19 pandemic survey closes at 5pm tomorrow (April 29).
He said the survey had already received a large volume of responses, but everyone’s opinions mattered as it would help us avoid the chaos of border closures and shutdowns in future situations of the scale of this pandemic.
“However, if you are yet to complete the survey I am appealing to you to put aside a few minutes today or tomorrow to have your say,” Mr Walsh added.
“We are keen to see it capture as much information as possible from cross-border residents, businesses and workers on their lived experiences of the impact of the various government responses to the COVID-19 pandemic, and especially on border restrictions,” he said.
“The survey is specifically for people who lived and worked in cross-border communities from 2020-2022 and you are welcome to share the survey link with your friends and colleagues in cross-border communities.”
The survey focuses on three key areas related to the border restrictions:
- Access to essentials, such as health, education, goods and services
- Exemptions for travel, including critical/essential workers, relocation and compassionate reasons
- Cross-border community zones and ‘border bubbles’, and how they were managed
You can join the survey at: https://forms.office.com/r/ynQFxUqbSV
NSW Cross-Border Commissioner James McTavish says the information people share with his office will be collated with other responses to provide a picture of the experiences of cross-border communities from 2020 to 2022.
Mr McTavish said this would inform his office’s work and advice to governments and improve future responses to emergencies.
“If you have any questions or require any assistance, please do not hesitate to contact us at enquiries@cbc.nsw.gov.au,” he said.
“And we thank you in advance for taking the time to complete this survey and sharing your experience. Together we can work towards improving outcomes for border communities.”