The pandemic’s been so tough and it’s done strange and unknowable things to all of our minds but there’s a certain category of Victorian who acts as if travelling to even the remotest and most far-flung bit of NSW is high treason and proof of LNP sympathies and it’s really gross.

There are obviously very genuine health concerns about people crossing borders during a pandemic but it’s become almost impossible to separate people with those concerns from people who just see any criticism of Dan Andrews and the Victorian government as the deepest betrayal.

Remember the fury in Victoria when NSW closed its border with us in mid-2020? Yet many of the furious are suddenly all in favour of border closures now that they’re working the other way, and I don’t think that’s due to deep reflection and soul-searching.

I’m nowhere near qualified to say whether the Victorian government’s approach to closing the border is right or wrong. But it’s almost impossible to have that conversation because it’s become so intensely party-political, and very largely that’s because of the Dan stans.

Victoria is an amazing place and I love living here but it’s also a place with a massive chip on its shoulder especially when it comes to NSW and the pandemic has brought that right out into the open in the ugliest possible way.

As a 15-year resident of Victoria, as someone who chooses to live here hundreds of kilometres from my family, who endured lockdown and didn’t see my family for 9 months, do you know what I hear when Dan stans cheer the NSW border closure? I hear that I’m not really welcome here.