Office of the Cross-Border Commissioner

Cross Border Commissioner

The Office of the NSW Cross Border Commissioner identifies and helps resolve issues that occur by being located near a state border.

James McTavish was appointed NSW Cross Border Commissioner in July 2014. As the Commissioner, he advocates for businesses, organisations and residents in border communities.

Important information about COVID-19 and border management.

A one stop shop for information on COVID-19 in NSW is also available at www.nsw.gov.au/covid-19

How we help

We assist businesses, organisations and individuals who live, work and operate in cross-border areas of NSW by helping to connect them to the most appropriate agency to ensure their issue is addressed.

We also work closely with the bordering states of NSW to gain an understanding of cross border issues and to develop a framework for the raising and resolution of cross border issues.

The Office of the NSW Cross Border Commissioner aims to achieve the best outcome for stakeholders by informing, connecting and advocating on behalf of NSW cross border communities. Our goals and strategies are outlined in the NSW Cross-Border Commissioner Business Plan 2015-18.

Working with Cross-Border Communities

ACT-NSW Cross-Border agreement

A new ACT and NSW Memorandum of Understanding for Regional Collaboration was signed by the NSW Premier, Gladys Berejiklian, and the ACT Chief Minister, Andrew Barr, in June 2020.

Shared priority areas for co-operation during the term of the term of this Agreement will be outlined as Shared Priority Focus Area Plans. This includes the Parkwood Urban Release Area Governance Framework.

Separately, ongoing cross-border actions that fall outside of the priority focus areas will be articulated in the ACT-NSW Table of on-going cross-border actions.

This new agreement establishes an annual Senior Officials Dialogue on Regional Collaboration and will be supported by a Progress Report outlining the progress of activity against milestones, and highlighting issues and area of concern.

QLD-NSW Cross-Border agreement

On 27 January 2017 the NSW and Queensland Premiers announced the signing of the Queensland-NSW Statement of Principles and Priorities for Cross-Border Collaboration 2016-19.

The agreement is supported by an annually revised Work List and Annual Report to assist in the identification and progression of cross-border issues.

Victoria-NSW Cross Border agreement

The NSW Cross Border Commissioner works closely with Victoria’s Cross Border Commissioner, Mr Luke Wilson.

The NSW and Victorian Premiers have signed the New South Wales and Victoria Memorandum of Understanding for Regional Collaboration (PDF, 260KB).

The agreement will be supported by an annually revised Work List and Annual Report to assist in the identification and progression of cross-border issues.

Get in touch

We assist with a wide variety of concerns related to living or working near a border. If there is a cross border issue affecting your ability to live, work and operate, please let us know by completing this online form.

You can contact the Commissioner by:

We are currently experiencing a high volume of requests for information, and we encourage you to submit all queries in writing via email. In order to ensure that you receive a timely response, we may forward your email to Service NSW to answer your query.

For media enquiries contact 02 6926 8609.

If you have a legal issue, the NSW Government provides a free government phone service for legal information, referrals and in some cases, advice for people who have a legal problem in NSW. For more information, go to the LawAccess NSW website or phone LawAccess NSW on 1300 888 529.

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