WE SAY: The NSW government has been exposed for poor planning

Little has run smoothly with the sealing off process, from the moment the Victorian and NSW premiers announced it at media conferences on Monday.

Firstly, councils and politicians who serve Murray River communities were not informed beforehand and left scrambling for information to pass on to their constituents or ratepayers.

Secondly, after we learned Service NSW would be issuing cross border permits there was little detail on how they would work and they were not accessible until after business hours on Tuesday.

Confusion over their application then resulted in businesses losing thousands of dollars of trade as bookings for salons or restaurants vanished amid the uncertainty.

Thirdly, small places along the river with low volumes of traffic have been split with bridges, from Biggara in the east to Tooleybuc in the west, sealed off to any traffic.

The series of problems points to a lack of preparation by the government of NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

Yes the shutdown has been caused by COVID-19 cases growing in Melbourne, but that should not have been unforeseen.

The Queensland border was first closed in March to interstate traffic and permits for residents in edge hubs such as Coolangatta-Tweed Heads were then issued.

Yet despite a national cabinet, involving Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk sharing meetings with Ms Berejiklian, and other premiers who have overseen border closures, the NSW government has been caught flat-footed.

A border sealing in NSW should have been properly plotted by the state, taking into account measures in other jurisdictions.

Alarmingly Ms Berejiklian spoke on Wednesday of a further crackdown on NSW border sites and potential redrawing of the frontier.

Doing this less than 12 hours after the shutoff began leaves us fearing we'll have more upheaval from a government that seems blind to the practical impact of their border blockade.