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Open NSW to Victoria now, say federal and state MPs, Qantas, truckies
By Clay Lucas and Lucy Cormack
Multiple federal government MPs and state politicians along the Victorian border, along with Qantas and other transport operators, have called on the New South Wales government to allow Victorians unfettered access to the state.
Victoria recorded no new coronavirus cases on Tuesday for a second consecutive day and NSW recorded just two, as calls mounted for the swift reopening of the border that was closed on July 7.
Police in New South Wales close the border with Victoria in July. It has been shut ever since.Credit: Justin McManus
The air corridor between Melbourne and Sydney, once the world’s second-busiest route, has fallen to such a trickle for Qantas that it now carries the same amount of passengers as the airline’s Brisbane-to-Emerald route.
The issue of border closures played out across Australia's east coast on Tuesday, with Tasmania announcing it would open its borders to NSW from next Friday - leaving it closed only to Victorians.
All other states and the ACT have restrictions in place to prevent entry by most Victorians. The Northern Territory allows Victorians to enter, but they are required to quarantine for 14 days.
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews said on Tuesday that he would discuss opening the border with his NSW counterpart Gladys Berejiklian this week.
Premier Daniel Andrews at the daily press conference on Tuesday.Credit: Luis Enrique Ascui
The border should re-open as quickly as is safely possible, Mr Andrews said. “As soon as we can get it open,” he said, “we will.”
Ms Berejiklian though was much more cautious, saying that while she also wanted to see the NSW border opened to Victorians “as soon as we can”, it could be necessary to delay the move.
Over the last seven days, NSW has recorded just six new coronavirus cases compared to 23 in Victoria.
Ms Berejiklian said she wanted “to see what happens once Victoria eases restrictions”.
“It’s easy not to spread the virus when everyone is confined to their home or has limited mobility,” she said. “But once you ease restrictions and people start moving around again, that’s the real test.”
Once lockdown eases is the real test, says NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.Credit: Nick Moir
Government MPs in NSW remain sceptical that Victoria's contract tracing is up to scratch and that its coronavirus outbreak is under control.
One NSW minister, commenting on the condition of anonymity, told The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald: "A couple of zeros does not make a COVID-free state". Another signalled it could be weeks before the border restrictions are dropped.
But federal government MPs on Tuesday were adamant that border closures needed to be dropped.
Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack said that nationally there had only been three locally acquired cases of coronavirus in the last 48 hours. “It is time for the states and territories to safely reopen their borders,” he said.
Federal environment minister Sussan Ley's NSW seat of Farrer takes in more than half of the border with Victoria. She said the border should be opened initially to regional residents, and then thrown open completely when Melbourne emerges from final restrictions on November 8.
“I think NSW would be confident in opening up to regional Victoria today and probably could have already done so,” she said.
Among businesses hit hard by the closure of the NSW border to Victorians is the Moama Bowling Club, a sprawling entertainment complex that is the first business over the border when coming from Echuca into NSW.
The club has lost 80 per cent of its turnover since July and is desperate for the NSW government to drop border restrictions.
“We want to see a return to normality,” marketing manager George Santos said. The bowling club had some regional travellers from Victoria. “But we are still way, way under where we should be,” he said.
Regional Victoria has a rolling average of 0.2 cases a day and zero coronavirus cases of unknown origin. Victorian Nationals leader Peter Walsh said there was “no reason not to open the border”.
“The inconvenience and the costs that those cross-border permits is putting on communities is really [unnecessary],” he said. “People are spending up to an hour in a queue to go to what is effectively part of their own community. It doesn’t pass the pub test anymore given the COVID levels in both states.”
The seat of Indi, in Victoria, is held by independent MP Helen Haines, who said border communities had suffered because of NSW's border closure. The sooner it opened the better, she said.
“Our community and daily way of life is usually unimpeded by the state border."
Qantas spokesman Andrew McGinnes said there was a lot of pent-up demand for intrastate travel and that the airline's traffic between Sydney and Melbourne was 99 per cent lower than in October 2019.
“Given Victoria’s hard-won success at getting things under control, we’re hopeful the quarantine requirement with other states will be removed very soon.
The reopening of retail and hospitality in Victoria will bring a spike in demand for goods not seen since July.
The Victorian Transport Association, which represents freight operators, said the borders needed to re-open swiftly for this reason.
Chief executive Peter Anderson said that while transport operators could get between NSW and Victoria more easily now, there were still issues encountered daily by trucking firms.
“We need to return to some sort of normalcy [to] benefit the national economy and boost consumer confidence, especially in the busy lead-up to Christmas,” he said.