THE NSW government's commitment to a 100km travel bubble either side of the Murray River still falls short of the needs of farmers and agriculture workers preparing for harvest and shearing.
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Travel out of the border region for farmers was blocked by the NSW government unless they were prepared to travel via Sydney.
But the rule has been relaxed under intense lobbying and declining coronavirus case numbers in Melbourne.
The 100km access into Victoria is still to be ticked off by NSW Health despite being promised by Deputy Premier and Nationals leader John Barilaro this week.
But for Yarrawonga farmer Chris Dowling, the 100km travel rule remained a roadblock to legally accessing crops in places such as Ungarie.
"We've got 60,000 acres of crop and our total income comes off in November-December so we can't have that jeopardised by these ridiculous rules," he said.
"We will start windrowing canola about the middle of October and we're getting machinery serviced and ready to go now.
"We've also got staff to organise and $5 to $6 million worth of equipment that has to go up there.
"The federal government has to step up to the plate.
"The country can't be brought to its knees because of petty state governments.
"It's not grade four, schoolyard stuff."
There are no longer travel limits on agriculture workers either side of the Queensland-NSW border and Mr Littleproud wants to see the system replicated on the NSW-Victoria border rather than token attempts to fix the problems.
"It is a little hypocritical of NSW to be doing this when they were moaning about Queensland and the border restrictions up there and are not prepared to do pragmatic, practical things to open up the NSW-Victoria border," he said.
"This is going to be with this us for some time and if states want to keep making their decisions predicated off capital cities it is going to make it a lot harder for farmers to put food on our plates and clothes on our backs.
"It's beholden on Premiers to actually lead on this and make sure their chief medical officers understand what exactly can be achieved in a safe and practical sense."
NSW Agricultiure Minister Adam Marshall has been contacted for comment.
Victorian Agriculture Minister Jaclyn Symes told The Border Mail she and her counterparts in other states and federally would be meeting next Tuesday.
She expected a national agreement, which she has worked on with NSW Agriculture Minister Adam Marshall, to be ratified at that forum.
It is expected to include COVID safe protocols and a single-permit system.
The latter would allow a hay contractor from Victoria to travel to Queensland without having multiple tickets.
