‘Its got to be done at a point in time where the rest of Australia is as safe as us’: Gunner on borders reopening

THE Territory’s borders could reopen before interstate coronavirus community transmission is entirely eradicated, Chief Minister Michael Gunner said today

Chief Minister Michael Gunner said the Territory’s borders could reopen before interstate community transmission is eradicated. Picture: Glenn Campbell

THE Territory’s borders could reopen before interstate coronavirus community transmission is entirely eradicated.

Chief Minister Michael Gunner said today the NT Government was using interstate transmission rates as a “flexible trigger” to determine when it would reopen the Territory’s borders, and said if community transmission decreased significantly, the borders could reopen.

“Zero (community transmission) would be the best number but I guess what I’m trying to say is if we’re flexible, it might be that community transmission is not at zero but it’s happening in a way which it doesn't give us the concern that it’s going to get across the border,” Mr Gunner said on ABC radio today.

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“We are looking at the community transmission rate down south as a flexible trigger not a hard trigger,” he said.

“I think people can understand if you look at the Northern Territory — because we had a flexible trigger for businesses reopening — when those two cases came in from overseas, the Defence personnel, we still opened so I think it’s important that you be flexible in the trigger.

“We’re looking at community transmission rates down south and we want a comfort that there will be no seeding out of one of those community transmissions, to borrow a medical phrase, about it getting out and going to another spot and creating another cluster.

“We want to make that decision as soon as we can make that decision, but its got to be done at a point in time where the rest of Australia is as safe as us.”

Calls for the Territory Government to reopen borders accelerated after Australia’s Deputy Chief Health Officer Paul Kelly said he never advised borders should close in the Northern Territory and other states.

“I’d just like to say that, at the national level, we’ve never said that – we’ve never suggested that internal borders in Australia should be closed,” he said.

“That’s been a decision by various states, and it will be their decision as to when to open them.”

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Mr Gunner said the decision to close borders was based on advice from NT Chief Health Officer Hugh Heggie, which Mr Gunner said he was grateful he listened to.

“I’m glad I took my advice from Dr Hugh Heggie, our Chief Health Officer in the Northern Territory, because if I’d taken the advice from the (Australian) Deputy Chief Health Officer we might never have closed the borders and I think closing the borders is one of the best things we’ve done to keep the Territory. the safest place in the country.”