NT border could open to regional Victorian residents in a ‘matter of weeks’, says Chief Minister Michael Gunner
REGIONAL Victorian residents could be allowed to enter the NT without needing to quarantine within ‘a matter of weeks’, says Chief Minister Michael Gunner
Northern Territory
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REGIONAL Victorian residents could be allowed to enter the NT without needing to quarantine within “a matter of weeks”, says Chief Minister Michael Gunner.
Mr Gunner said regional Victoria had been tracking “extremely well” over recent weeks, after recording virtually no new COVID-19 cases.
He indicated the NT could be on track to remove its COVID-19 hotspot declaration for the area “within a matter of weeks.”
Chief Health Officer Hugh Heggie said revoking the hotspot status was conditional on the continuing lack of community transmission.
It would mean travellers from regional Victoria who arrive in the NT would no longer need to complete 14-day quarantine.
New Zealanders will be welcomed into the NT without having to quarantine in just two weeks under a new agreement between the NZ, Australian and Territory governments.
Meanwhile, Territorians will be able to enter Tasmania without quarantining from October 26.
However the WA government is still refusing to reopen their border, despite mounting pressure from other states.
Premier Mark McGowan said there was “no benefit” to reopening WA’s border to places like the NT.
He said those pushing for it only want to see WA’s high income earners splash their cash in cities like Sydney and Darwin.
“Honestly, the benefit to opening to the Northern Territory or South Australia for Western Australia is not there,” he said.
“All we’ll do is lose jobs were we to open to those states.
“The other states want us to open the border so that West Australian tourists will flood east, not so that people from the east will come here.
“They’re only saying all this for very self-interested reasons because we have higher incomes, we have people that are more used to travelling and therefore we’ll have more tourists going from WA to the east.”
Mr Gunner said he spoke to the WA Premier on Thursday night on the topic.
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“I absolutely understand why the Premier is terrified that Western Australians will flood into the Northern Territory — they’ll holiday here, they’ll spend their money here,” he said. “We’ve got the Million Dollar Barra on and the Laksa Festival.”
Originally published as NT border could open to regional Victorian residents in a ‘matter of weeks’, says Chief Minister Michael Gunner