‘A couple of days’: express COVID border exemption for govt project​

Interstate workers on the Gawler rail electrification project were granted express approval to come to SA and skip 14 days quarantine, just two days after the head of the transport department wrote directly to SA Health.

The revelation comes as more than 7,000 South Australians remain stranded interstate, with many failing to get a timely response from the government to their request.

Department of Infrastructure and Transport chief executive Tony Braxton-Smith has revealed in Parliament it only took “a couple of days” for the exemption request for three interstate workers to be approved:

Kyam Maher: “So when you made that request on 29 August—I think you said in writing—how long after that did you hear back about them?”
Braxton-Smith: “Shortly afterwards.”
Maher: “A couple of— “
Braxton-Smith: “A couple of days.”

The CFMEU has raised concerns about safety issues on the site, with interstate workers from NSW working in close proximity to locals.

“They’ve having to work pretty much within a metre of these guys in certain areas - no social distancing or nothing is happening at the moment down there,” Marcus Pare from the CFMEU told FIVEaa.

Quotes attributable to Shadow Minister for Infrastructure & Transport Tom Koutsantonis

Why is it that interstate workers on government projects get express approval to not only come here, but skip 14-days quarantine, while South Australians are stuck interstate and can’t even get a response to their request?

People rightly expect consistency, but at the moment it appears there is a separate set of rules for people working on government projects.