Brisbane and greater Queensland will shut borders to NSW and ACT regions on Saturday. Photo / File
Brisbane and greater Queensland will shut borders to NSW and ACT regions on Saturday. Photo / File
In Australia, two people have been charged and one is under investigation for allegedly giving false information at the Queensland border, as the state prepares to shut the door to millions more Australians.
From 1am on Saturday, Queensland's borders will close to New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory for everyone except border community residents, freight and very few other exemptions.
Queensland Police deputy commissioner Steve Gollschewski branded those falsifying information as "selfish", as he revealed two people from Nanango had been charged for falsely declaring information on their border declaration passes.
"Disappointingly for us, we are currently investigating a man, we will allege, (who) has deliberately driven from Sydney to the ACT to get a flight to come to Brisbane and then connected to Cairns," Gollschewski said.
"He said he was frustrated with restrictions, he didn't like them and wanted to go to work. Quite a selfish approach.
"Can I highlight to the community that these are very serious offences. They carry an on-the-spot $4000 fine and a more significant penalty in a court of law, more particularly 18 months' imprisonment potentially."
Gollschewski said the border-check system was working well, but police recognised they could not keep up with the numbers of people still entering the state as the risk of a second wave coming from NSW or Victoria increased.
He confirmed 77 people had been turned around at Queensland's road borders in the past 24 hours.
"We've seen 53 flights come in, intercepted 2232 passengers and placed 126 into quarantine ... none have been refused entry," he said.
"At our borders, we've intercepted 5614 vehicles, 77 have been refused entry and 31 placed into quarantine."
Gollschewski said the hard border closure would help police to "100 per cent" audit everyone coming into the state.
"You will be 100 per cent stopped at both road and air borders from Saturday. There is no way to get through without an exemption," he said.
Photo identification will be required to cross into Queensland, with decisions on how to streamline the process for those living in cross-border communities yet to be finalised.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said it was the right decision to make, having listened to the concerns of Queenslanders, who want to avoid a second wave and get the economy back on track.
"This is a life-and-death situation; everyone is serious about this," she said
"People are continuously raising with me the strong actions to protect their family's health.
"Every jurisdiction needs to protect its community; that's what I'm doing."
She reiterated that Queensland needed to put itself first, a day after it was revealed three men had returned to Victoria and allegedly did not disclose their movements on their border declaration pass.
