States and territories must abandon their policy of eradication and stop closing borders every time there is a small outbreak of the coronavirus, because the vaccine rollout is lessening the health risk and the economic recovery is at stake, business and political leaders say.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian, Qantas chief executive Alan Joyce and Prime Minister Scott Morrison were part of a concerted push on Tuesday to argue that Australia would start to fall behind economically unless the states put faith in the vaccine rollout and drop their obsession with having zero cases every day.