With the News South Wales-Victoria border mere hours away from closing last night, an Albury-Wodonga local was on the ground, airing his honest thoughts on the border closure while asking a very sincere question.
Nine News journalist Reid Butler was in Wodonga on Tuesday, reporting on the imminent border closure when a local man carrying a can of VB crashed an interview he was doing with another local, and he had some concerns.
He said the closure is “not really good”. He continued: “Sir, I don’t really give a fuck. I’m in lockdown.”
“Mate, I live here, and you try to lock me out of bloody Albury and Wodonga? How am I supposed to get to Centrelink? That’s what I’m really worried about.”
A voice off-camera then asked: “Is there a Centrelink in Wodonga?”
“No, there’s not,” the local responded. “Nah, that’s very bad, hey?”
Reid shared the exchange on his Twitter account, which you can watch below.
That moment when a voxie gets crashed by an absolute legend. 🍻 #wodonga #channel12news pic.twitter.com/s9djqNeNEd
— Reid Butler (@reid_butler9) July 7, 2020
The local isn’t wrong, mind you. Albury Service Centre on the NSW side of the border is the closest Centrelink location to Wodonga, which is on the Victorian side.
The closest Centrelink in Victoria to Wodonga is Wangaratta Service Centre, which is around 75km away from the Albury-Wodonga border.
While Service NSW said people who qualify as “cross-border resident” can apply for a border crossing permit, there are exemptions for people crossing the border to “meet other legal obligations.”
