Restore visitor ban for NT remote communities, urges Rural Doctors Association

A LEADING medical association has issued an urgent call for strict visitor bans to be reintroduced for remote Aboriginal communities

THE Rural Doctors Association of Australia has issued an urgent call for strict visitor bans to be reintroduced for remote Aboriginal communities to prevent interstate tourists spreading corona­virus to some of the Territory’s most vulnerable residents.

Visitor restrictions for remote communities in the NT were lifted in June — although visitors still need to follow the requirements of land councils and communities — but the RDAA says the continuing threat of COVID-19 around Australia means the Territory government should reinstate them.

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Its concerns echo those of the Mutitjulu community, whose residents recently blockaded the entrance to Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park and called for the park and nearby airport to be closed to prevent travellers from declared hot spots from entering.

The Rural Doctors Association of Australia has issued an urgent call for strict visitor bans to be reintroduced for remote Aboriginal communities. Pictured is Kiwirrkurra community, a community on the WA/NT border. Picture: Marie Nirme/The Australian

RDAA president John Hall said the lifting of visitor restrictions had left remote communities at too great a risk of COVID-19.

“Given the evidence of community spread in the eastern states, and some people providing false declarations at state borders — or crossing some state borders illegally — the NT government should move quickly to again restrict access to its remote Aboriginal communities,” he said.

“Without visitor restrictions, it is only a matter of time before coronavirus gets into one or more of these fragile communities, and once it does the result could be devastating.”

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Chief Minister Michael Gunner said the NT’s border restrictions had made it “the safest place in Australia, and they are not going anywhere”.

“We are working with remote communities every day to keep them safe,” he said. “A lot of people outside the Territory like to tell us what to do, but we’ve stayed the safest by listening to our experts, working with our land councils, and putting the Territory first.”