Border closures to create Christmas fruit and veg shortages

States and territories dramatically shut their borders to Adelaide after a coronavirus cluster was revealed. But it could have unintended consequences.

Australians should prepare for fruit and vegetable shortages this Christmas after states and territories closed their borders following an outbreak in Adelaide.

Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox has issued a warning about a shortage of supplies saying getting goods around the country was going to be “more difficult”.

Western Australia, Queensland, Tasmania and the Northern Territory quickly closed their borders to Adelaide residents after a cluster was revealed in its northern suburbs.

Police monitor the Queensland border on the Gold Coast Hwy. Picture: NIGEL HALLETT

The sudden travel restrictions have been condemned by Mr Willox, who said the agreement for states and territories to be open for Christmas now seemed like “pretty hollow words”.

“It makes it really, really difficult for business to plan,” Mr Willox told Today.

“It’s a day-by-day, almost hour by hour situation now because they don’t know what a state government will do next.

“We’re already seeing concerns and reports around shortages of fruit and vegetables and other supplies for Christmas.”

“We used to be one country but now it seems like we’re sort of eight states and territories,” AI Group chief Innes Willox says.

Mr Innes said border closures at the drop of a hat showed it was the states and their chief health officers who were running the show.

“We need to find a way to come back together and to make agreements stick and for premiers to agree that they need to keep the country open,” he said.

“What the Federal Government needs to do is to essentially knock heads together and get the states to agree that if there are localised outbreaks, that they will help each other, not turn their backs on each other.”