Doctors, ACT residents and many from the North East cannot cross the border from Victoria into NSW, but politicians were free to do so on the weekend.
Melbourne-based MP Tim Wilson was one of those who passed through the Albury-Wodonga checkpoint on his way to isolate in Canberra before the next sitting of Parliament.
He appeared on the ABC's Q&A on Monday, as about 100 people from Canberra were left stranded in Wodonga unable to make the same trip.
"I drove up here from Victoria over the weekend, there were cancellations of our permits as well. We were able to get them reissued within time to cross the border," he said.
"The NSW government should be sorting this straight away and I would have thought it was a very simple administrative process to do," he said.
"I would have thought this was something that was relatively straightforward, I don't understand why that's not the case."
Anne Cahill Lambert also appeared on the program from Benalla, where she and her husband have been based for four months while he worked at Benalla hospital during the coronavirus pandemic.
They had planned to return home to Canberra on Friday, but were turned back at the border at Albury and told their permits were no longer valid.
"I know the politicians are important, the footballers are important, but in my family, I'm important," she said.
"I'm concerned that Dunkirk seemed to be a smoother operation than this one."
She said some people had been forced to sleep in their cars, because Wodonga motels would not let them stay because they had travelled up from Melbourne.