The Federal Member for Mallee, Anne Webster, questions the Andrews Government’s closure of the Victorian border. The reactionary approach to the SA outbreak denies the recently agreed to national framework of effective testing, contact tracing, and targeted restrictions, as opposed to blanket controls.Dr Webster wants the Andrews Government to recognise and accept cross-border permits already issued by the Government of South Australia, rather than reinventing a bureaucratic wheel.“We are moving into a confusing border situation where residents have no assurance that the rules that were in place yesterday will be the same today.“Premier Andrews could extend Premier Marshall’s permit scheme for Victorian residents to allow those in cross-border communities with existing valid reasons to cross back into Victoria.We are in the middle of harvest – this is time critical. I have been advocating for this to Minister Littleproud, and I am pleased that Minister Symes has now provided a ‘time critical harvest permit’ to allow important harvest work to continue uninterrupted.Dr Webster said that when Mr Andrews announced on Thursday he would impose a ‘hard border’ for 48 hours from Friday morning, he did so because his government had not devised a cross-border permit scheme. Nothing was in place, not even the wording for proposed permits.“Victoria is obviously starting from scratch without any experience. The NSW Government attempted three different border permit schemes before they got it right. Mr Andrews would be advised to learn from the mistakes of others,” Dr Webster said.“I have been fighting for months for Cross Border Communities to be able to get on and live their lives with open borders. What we need is for borders to come down and for a national approach to be taken seriously regarding hotspot definition, tracing mechanisms and testing regimes.”“When there is an outbreak, there needs to be a targeted approach to isolation and restrictions. A hard border stops people working, shopping, going to school, and running their cross-border businesses. The irony is that this year is a bumper harvest, but these measures by state governments put it at risk.” “We are asking: where is the science, where are the processes, where is the evidence."