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The Australian Defence Force is finalising plans to deploy 350-500 personnel to the NSW-Victoria border, which is set to close at midnight on the back of a surge in Victorian cases.
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Reports surfaced early Tuesday morning in national media outlets stating that the ADF was planning to deploy troops in support of NSW Police Force border checkpoints. This has since been confirmed by a Defence spokeswoman, who said that the deployment was still pending approval from NSW authorities.
Building on a partnership pattern established throughout Operation COVID-19 Assist, ADF personnel will not be directly involved with law enforcement but will act in support of police operations.
“Defence is ready to provide support for a range of contingencies in both states and will continue to work to support states and territories when requested,” the spokeswoman said.
"The first of these are expected to deploy to the border to achieve the NSW government directed border closure timings, pending finalising the agreement with NSW authorities."
Speaking on Tuesday, Victorian Police Chief Shane Patton also welcomed the scaling-up of ADF assistance to his force.
“We’ve been planning for that [increased ADF involvement] and finalising those plans because we do need to consider all the options and if that planning allows us to free up some police resources then I have no issues with that, at all,” he said.
The news comes after the announcement of the reinstatement of closures along the NSW-Victoria border, which were first made public on Monday.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews outlined the plan at a press conference, after revealing the state had logged a further 127 coronavirus cases.
There are currently 195 ADF personnel posted to Victoria – where they are largely involved in medical testing initiatives. A further 144 are currently in NSW, where the majority (108) are acting in support of state police quarantine and self-isolation directions.
Defence said that operational troops are further supported by personnel deployed to Joint Task Group headquarters and administrative roles.
