Scott Morrison says nationally consistent rules for casual contacts to be introduced

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the role of QR codes will change in Australia because of higher case numbers.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison says there will be new, nationally consistent isolation and testing rules for casual contacts in Australia, while QR codes will play an increasingly different role as case numbers rise.

Speaking after a snap, emergency national cabinet meeting on Wednesday, Mr Morrison said there were a number of areas that states and territories had agreed to move forward - including testing, contact tracing, isolation requirements and quarantine.

“We’ve agreed today that we must have a common definition right across the country on what is a casual contact and what are the implications of being a casual contact in terms of isolation, requirements for PCR tests and things of that nature,” he said.

He said this was because there could not be different rules in different parts of Australia for both close and casual contacts.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison flagged new rules for casual contacts would be introduced. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

“There is even an argument which says that there shouldn’t be any requirement to have a casual contact definition at all when you’re dealing with such a high volume of cases,” he said.

“What matters is how you’re managing those close contacts and how they’re defined and what you have to do if you are someone who was in that situation.”

He said they had asked the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee – an expert panel which advises states and territories on public health measures – to come up with recommendations for a new definition in the next fortnight.

Mr Morrison also flagged that QR codes would play an increasingly different role in Australia “into the future” that was more focused towards people self regulating their own Covid responses.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison said the role of QR codes would be to alert people, not to police them. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

“In those states and territories where there are very high numbers of cases the prospect of tracing every single person who logs into a particular venue is unrealistic and is not a good use of resources,” he said.

“What that means is the QR code system is not being used to police people or to impose sanctions on people, what it’s being used for is to ensure that people can be alerted through the QR code system about if they’ve been at a particular place where an infection has been identified.

“And then the individual, if they are not a close contact, can self-manage their response to ensure they can take appropriate action.”

Mr Morrison said in some states with low case numbers they would continue to use QR code systems the same way.

“But in states which have very high case numbers, well, that’s not a realistic proposition,” he said.

“But it continues to provide a very helpful role to help in cases with high numbers of (infections) for people to self manage, or self regulate their own Covid responses.”