A NORTH East MP is optimistic Victoria's border checkpoints will be lifted before New Year's Eve, but two Albury councillors expect them to stay until 2021.
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Member for Ovens Valley Tim McCurdy, who is receiving a daily government briefing, said his "early mail" was that the Murray River barriers would remain until after Christmas and be "hopefully gone by the new year".
"That's my hope, that they are gone by New Year's Eve," Mr McCurdy said.
"That all depends on (COVID-19 case) numbers, but if they're going down in Sydney that gives you confidence you can remove the barrier restrictions."
Eight new cases were reported on Wednesday in NSW, a figure matching the previous day's number.
Mr McCurdy said if figures continued to plateau or drop and the checkpoints were retained it would reflect a "political environment rather than a logical environment".
However, the Nationals MP supported the state Labor government's shutdown, saying residents needed to be prepared for borders "to open and close at short notice" and "that's sensible".
Albury mayor Kevin Mack and fellow councillor Murray King, both former Victorian policemen, believe the border won't be unchecked until the new year.
"My understanding is that it's a minimum of two weeks," Cr Mack told the Albury Triple M radio breakfast show on Wednesday.
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Cr King told The Border Mail: "I believe that, based on information from reliable sources, it's in for at least 14 days but it all depends on the numbers from Sydney."
The coronavirus logistics co-ordinator for Victoria Jeroen Weimar would not say when the checkpoints would be removed.
"We'll watch this day by day and when it is safe to do so we'll ease the restrictions," Mr Weimar said.
Asked if the border clamps could be lifted by December 31 he replied: "I'm not going to speculate day by day."
Mr Weimar cited a range of factors that will influence the removal of the inspection stations that were set up on Monday in response to Sydney's outbreak.
"(We'll) be watching very closely how NSW Health are going, obviously with their contact tracing, the cases they identify..., any other exposure sites," he said.
"At this point in time we would want to be really confident that all those potentially exposed to the virus are safely isolated, safely locked down, and that there is no risk of it further spreading out into the greater Sydney area before we start talking about relaxing our border restrictions."
Meanwhile, Victorian Upper House MP Tim Quilty slammed the border closure on Wednesday.
"It's the same rubbish we saw from the NSW Government, the same lack of planning and the same lack of consideration for border communities, except this time it's drivers heading south who are struggling," the Wodonga MP said.
"I would've thought the Victorian Government could apply lessons learned from the NSW closure, but all the indicators are that they either don't know or don't care about the problems they've created.
"Families are being kept apart just days out from Christmas, businesses are being hit and the traffic jams have been horrendous."
Police media in Melbourne told The Border Mail that dedicated freight lanes would now operate on the Hume Freeway and Lincoln Causeway crossings in Albury-Wodonga.
After three days of implementation, police believe the checkpoint system is suitable.
"Victoria Police have teams working around the clock to staff the checkpoints, and we are confident that we are sufficiently resourced to establish an effective and efficient system," a spokesperson said.
"We understand that the delays and traffic experienced at the border are challenging for those people who live and work in border communities.
"We thank everyone for their patience and ongoing cooperation as we work through these issues."
Motorists reported traffic delays improved yesterday but there was a line of traffic extending well back into Albury along Wodonga Place at different times.
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