There is continuing outcry across social media that there are more and more cars in the area and that many of them are from the ACT, simply observed by the colour of the plates. Holiday houses are filling on a daily basis and many permanent residents are wanting to know if it is legal that these holiday home owners are arriving to seek refuge on the coast in an area that they perceive to be safer (and maybe a bit nicer) than where they are coming from. For NSW residents the Public Health (COVID-19 Restrictions on Gathering and Movement) Order 2020 under the Public Health Act 2010 states:
Under section 8 it states: moving to a new place of residence (including a business moving to new premises) or between different places of residence of the person or inspecting a potential new place of residence So if the holiday-house next door to you is now occupied by its Sydney, Dubbo, Hay owner then they have simply moved between different places of residence. If it is an ACT owner then the same might apply even though all the ACT have advised their residents is "Following the advice of the Commonwealth Government, the ACT Government is strongly urging Canberrans to avoid all non-essential travel outside of the Canberra region" "Under this instruction, the only travel outside of the Canberra region should be for work, for ‘compassionate’ reasons and to ensure essential supplies and services. We are urging Canberrans to take a common sense approach to this instruction, and carefully consider whether they have to travel outside of the region for any of these reasons." Should the holiday-house next door NOT be occupied by the OWNER then it can be construed that the people have come from out of the region and are on holiday in a holiday house. Should that be the case then it can be argued that the people have breached the Public Health Order Part 2 (4) Taking a holiday in a regional area is not a reasonable excuse. PLEASE NOTE HOWEVER THAT we have an influx of essential services personnel from Victoria, Qld, the ACT and NSW, such as travelling essential grade 1 medical consultants who are providing clinics here for local residents. If you wish to take action at that point then you can call CrimeStoppers and report the alleged breach that will see the police determine if there is one, being aware that the rules are changing day by day. As Easter approaches there is a need for clarity around who is legally allowed to be here and who has breached the Public Health rules.
Meanwhile there are presently 75,000 travellers out there in Australia in the caravans, vans and mobile homes with quite a few in our region.
Under Directions of Minister concerning closure of certain premises caravan parks and camping grounds have been closed, except for purposes of
- (i) accommodating permanent residents of the caravan park or camping ground or other persons who have no other place of permanent residence, and
(ii) allowing visitors to visit persons referred to in subparagraph (i),
So travelling vans, caravans and mobile homes do not have a place they can safely park and isolate unless they were staying at a caravan park or camping ground immediately before 26 March 2020 and is continuing to stay at the caravan park or camping ground.
Hopefully with the above information our local residents might be better informed of what they are seeing and what they might be perceiving as breaches that in fact are not.
