Border bans: PM, Premiers discuss guidelines
A new roadmap for border restrictions will be discussed by Scott Morrison and state premiers on Friday as tourism bosses push for a more transparent, national approach. See what it means for Tasmania >>
News
Don't miss out on the headlines from News. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A NEW roadmap for border restrictions will be discussed by Scott Morrison and state premiers on Friday as tourism bosses push for a more transparent, national approach.
The Prime Minister and state leaders will begin to hammer out a set of high-level principles and guidelines to govern border closures in National Cabinet talks.
It comes after Qantas boss Alan Joyce and the Australian Tourism Industry Council called for states and territories to adopt clearer national guidelines on border restrictions, warning some appeared “politically driven”.
Political leaders will also discuss Australia’s vaccine strategy and plans to bring in seasonal workers from overseas to pick fruit and vegetables, after concerns farmers wouldn’t be able to get enough Australian workers to fill the jobs and there would be grocery price spikes.
Mr Joyce criticised border closures between states with no cases as “more politically driven” than “medically or scientifically based” on Thursday as he announced Qantas recorded a $1.9 billion loss for 2020 due to coronavirus.
It comes just days after Tasmania extended its border closure until December 1.
“Surely these decisions should be based on the facts, the health advice and the level of cases that we’re seeing around various states,” Mr Joyce said.
“Otherwise it feels like there’s no real basis for the decisions, it’s there just to inform the politics.
“We’re not saying open the borders blankly. We’re saying, ‘Let’s have the rules to say what would you have to see in order for those borders to be open?”
The ATIC has pitched two proposals for a national strategy on border closures.
One would trigger a framework for reopening after 14 days of no or “nondescript” community transmission.
The second proposal would require borders to reopen during the week after there was no or nondescript community transmission after 28 days.
Premiers from Queensland, Western Australia and the NT in particular have been accused of keeping their borders shut to other covid-safe states and territories for political reasons ahead of upcoming state elections.
“I don’t think we should be dictated to by public polls,” ATIC executive director Simon Westaway told a Senate inquiry on the government’s management of COVID-19 on Thursday.
“We’ve got to have a framework, we’re going to have some principles, we’ve got to utilize that national cabinet process.
“We had a really good road map back in May.
“We’re about four months down the track and look where we’re at now - the double downs that are occurring on borders even though we’ve had the best rolling seven day period in terms of reduction of the incidence of COVID in our community, I think is really quite a galling point.”
Premier Peter Gutwein said Tasmania would ease border restrictions “when it is safe to do so”.
“At this stage we plan to open to safe jurisdictions on December 1 but if circumstances on the mainland improve more rapidly and the advice is that we can open sooner, we will, but Tasmanians should plan ahead based on the timeline to the end of November as I have outlined.”
Mr Westaway told the committee modelling showed state border closures cost the nation an estimated $84 million a day and 700 jobs.
Australia’s emergency response for aged care to coronavirus outbreaks will also be discussed at National Cabinet.
Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe and Treasury boss Steven Kennedy will also brief leaders on the state of the economy.
Originally published as Border bans: PM, Premiers discuss guidelines