Return of international travel puts pressure on closed-border states

The government hopes allowing Australians to return will put pressure on the closed-border states to allow their returning residents to get back home, James Campbell writes.

For the past 18 months every federal minister you talked to has whinged about how they are powerless to move forward in the face of the all-powerful state and territory governments.

So you might have thought Scott Morrison would have seized with both hands Dominic Perrottet’s decision to junk home and hotel quarantine for double-jabbed travellers from the start of next month.

But all Perrottet got from the Prime Minister was one-and-a-half cheers.

Morrison made it clear immigration is a federal matter and right now his priority is getting stranded Australians and permanent residents home than opening the borders to students and migrants – let alone holidaying tourists.

The government worries that allowing open slather for foreigners risks keeping Australia’s internal borders closed for longer.

A sign is displayed inside the empty arrivals hall at the international airport in Sydney. Picture: David Gray/AFP

The view is that while people in Sydney and Melbourne might be itching to re-open to the world after being locked down for months, the rest of the country isn’t there yet.

So from next month the best way for NSW residents to see Queensland will be to make sure they get a window seat on their flights to and from Bali.

Canberra hopes that allowing unlimited numbers of Australians to return in short order will put pressure on the closed-border states to hurry up and allow their returning residents to get back home.

It’s hard to judge how realistic is this hope.

After all Annastacia Palaszczuk hasn’t been moved to alleviate the plight of Queenslanders stuck in northern NSW.

Perrottet’s decisive move is another sign that Australia’s biggest and most important state has a leader keen to put his foot to the floor on economic reform.

It’s taken them a decade in power, but the NSW Liberals have finally landed on a leader who is prepared to take radical action.

It’s a wake up call to the reform-shy snoozers in state governments around Australia – and in Canberra too.