Cr Bilkey said the lack of bookings and a downturn of 95 per cent for some businesses translated into millions of dollars lost for the local economy.
“It’s gut-wrenching as a councillor to see what’s happening,” he said.
“It’s absolutely no fault of anyone living in Moama or Echuca — we have no COVID-19 cases and yet we bear the brunt of the economic hit when these things happen.
“It’s ironic, there’s probably more people in our town at the moment than we’ve had for a long time, but they’re all sitting in cars waiting to get across the bridge.
“That’s a huge population running down Meninya St all the time, but none of them are spending money where we want it to be spent.”
Cr Bilkey said while a rescue package and returning tourists would not recover all losses, both together should go some way to ensuring businesses could survive.
“We need that green zone to be implemented on the NSW side so people from Victoria can have free access,” he said.
Council has been advocating for support from the NSW Government, including writing to Premier Gladys Berejiklian.
“We’ve invited the Premier to come down and understand the situation — she has refused,” Cr Bilkey said.
“We’ve got to have a rescue package from the NSW Government to address the losses that have been incurred, really as a result of the Sydney outbreak, which has been the cause of Victoria closing its border.
“Just as the Victorian Government provided support to Victorian businesses when NSW closed the border, it’s time for the NSW Government to compensate NSW businesses.”
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