Separated from his daughter by a border bubble and cancer, it’s been seven weeks since Brad Jones’ whole family has been together. 

Read more about Brad’s story: Border politics still stands between Lismore dad and his sick daughter

Now, with today’s announcement that the Queensland/NSW border bubble will widen to include Lismore on October 1, Brad will be able to take all his children from Lismore to visit their mum and sister - four year old daughter Charlotte - who has been critically ill in ICU in a Brisbane children’s hospital. 

Read more news: Queensland border bubble opens to include Lismore

Charlotte in hospital.

“The border opening means I am finally exempt to stay in the cancer hospital accommodation with Melissa, my partner, without having to go into a two week quarantine,” Brad said.

“It’s a really big lift. Melissa will finally get to see the other kids face to face after seven weeks - and we’ll try to get life back to how it was before the border closed.”

Brad said after October 1, he will be able to apply for a seven day border crossing exemption much like he used to. He intends to travel up on weekends with the rest of the family’s children to visit. 

Special exemption

Brad said he had been granted special permission to enter Queensland last weekend to visit Charlotte.

“I applied for special exemption again and instead of waiting weeks like the last time, I was called by the health border police and told I had a pass to travel into Queensland and straight to the hospital if anything bad happened to Charlotte,” he said.

Speechless

“If I do the right thing, I can get in the car and go at any time and it’s up to the hospital about how long I can stay. last weekend they let me stay for six hours. The nurses were made speechless by it as well.

“She wasn’t doing so well and I took up a hamper with toys for her and made her laugh.

Recovery

“She’s a little fighter and finally made it out of ICU on Monday. Now it’s a big recovery process and she will need lots of physiotherapy to be able to walk again after so much time in bed.

“She even had bedsores on her, poor darling.

“I’ll never forget her face when she saw me come coming in and I sat on her bed and talked to her and rubbed her belly.

Melissa, Charlotte and Brad.

Broke down

“Melissa broke down when I got there – she’s had four weeks of little sleep. Now I will be able to go and stay at the hospital and let her go back to the accommodation and get a bit of a break.

“It’s not a holiday. 

“We’ll see how it all turns out. Hopefully everyone abides by the new border rules - schoolies week is still to come.

“Even last Friday when I was driving past Wet’n’Wild, seeing it packed was heartbreaking.

“All I wanted to do was go to hospital and see little girl - but it’s all about money in high places and politics.”

MP Hogan responds

Federal Member for Page Kevin Hogan has been campaigning on Brad’s behalf to see the border open and said the border expansion was a good first step, but it should not be closed at all.

“We know the border closure has caused chaos every day in multiple cases with people who are in traumatic situations and have loved family members in distress,” he said.

Political pressure

“The Queensland Premier is under a lot of pressure and gets written to every day by these people and I think she’s seeing close up the disruption and chaos she is causing.

“But I’m wary of her motivation regarding the closure and the rest of the bubble. Last week, she spent money on polling to check if what she was doing with the border closure was still resonating with Queenslanders.

Advocate

“I will continue to advocate for no restrictions. We have no Covid cases and there are no medical grounds for it. The chief medical officer of Australia has never said the border should be closed.

“We need to see Clarence and Coffs included in the bubble as well and the border north has not moved. You still can’t roam freely in Queensland.”

Lismore Mayor 

Lismore Mayor Isaac Smith said Lismore Council had been fighting for this change for months and it was a “big step for Lismore”.

“A survey we conducted showed that more than 70% of Lismore residents had a family member just over the border,” he said. “We know in times of pandemic that mental health is a big issue - this will open up those borders and bring families back together.”