NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian today announced the closure of the state border with Victoria from 12.01am Wednesday, 8 July.

The Prime Minister contacted me before the announcement and I conveyed to him the high level of concern and potential impacts this decision will have on our local way of life.

The latest advice is that Service NSW will be a making a permit application process (on line form to print off or download) available tomorrow via their website www.service.nsw.gov.au.

Quite obviously no one wanted this closure to occur, but right now state governments need to take the expert health advice to help curb the spread. This is what NSW have done and they’ve also had to move very quickly.

I expect from here, especially over the next few days, we will need to have a great deal of patience and understanding while NSW puts roadside checks and a traveller permit exemption system in place.

We’re receiving assurances those of us who need to move regularly back and forth across the Murray will still be able to do so; that also needs to happen quickly and is vital for every single border community I represent in Farrer, from Jingellic to South Australia.