It was just over a week ago that Scott Morrison insisted he would go with the crowd to see his Cronulla Sharks rugby league team open their season in Sydney’s southern suburbs the following night. By Sunday morning, the Prime Minister banned all non-essential interstate and intrastate travel, while chastising Bondi Beach goers and warning of a draconian crackdown on all those who don’t do their bit in the war against COVID-19.

Even this rolling series of events was overtaken on Sunday afternoon as state and territory governments imposed unprecedented restrictions on internal movement throughout the Commonwealth. The governments of South Australia, Western Australia and ACT have all closed their borders to limit the contagion across state lines. NSW and Victorian governments have also moved to try to get ahead of the infection curve by announcing the forced shuttering of all non-essential business in the next 48 hours, with the principal aim being to limit the spread of the virus in the international metropolises of Sydney and Melbourne. Nationwide school closures, as already announced in Victoria, and localised lockdowns of infection hotspots are the almost certain next stages of the shutdown.