Reopen borders for prosperity

The limited easing of border restrictions for rural workers in NSW and Queensland is a welcome acknowledgment that rigid, city-focused COVID-19 rules are unwise and unworkable. Much remains to be done, however, to avoid the creation of a mishmash of different rules between various jurisdictions that might look good to bureaucrats but make no sense out bush. Rather than small-picture exemptions, the focus must be on how to lift border restrictions safely everywhere to allow the economy to operate unrestricted across the federation. Government declarations that jobs are the top priority must be more than lip service given the dire warnings being offered by business.

Flight Centre managing director Graham Turner has added his voice to concerns in these pages, pointing out Queensland and Tasmania have economies and workforces heavily reliant on tourism, travel events and hospitality. As we learn to live with COVID-19, he argues, these states desperately need borders open.

There has been a big difference in approaches taken by Victoria and Queensland on cross-border movement related to agriculture. Victoria’s border bubble allows farmers and critical agricultural workers who reside outside the border region zone in Victoria to travel up to 100km within NSW. They must provide a highly specialised critical agricultural service and self-isolate when not doing this work.

Farmers along the NSW and Queensland border will fare slightly better under new, somewhat relaxed rules. They will not be limited to operating within 100km of the border but will face limits on time and the actions they are permitted to undertake. The limited travel approvals will not apply to seasonal workers. Farmers and agribusiness workers must travel directly to and from the relevant farm or premises without stopping.

As the Business Council of Australia has warned, the rapid and piecemeal implementation of complex and inconsistent domestic border restrictions is affecting families, destroying jobs and crippling the Australian economy’s ability to recover from the pandemic. The BCA correctly emphasises that inconsistent state- and territory-based rules ignore the reality of the way small and large businesses operate across borders and how we live our lives.

Following the national cabinet get-together on Friday, Scott Morrison said an agricultural workers code was being prepared to be considered at the next meeting. The code will provide for a nationally consistent approach covering individuals with occupations deemed critical to ensure the continuity of the agricultural sector. It is to be hoped the framework will reverse the approach taken so far by Victoria and Queensland.

Rather than focus on the sorts of limited technical exceptions outlined in those jurisdictions, the national code must work from the position of maximum flexibility for border communities and the agriculture sector as a whole. As advocated by the BCA, the national cabinet needs to agree to a nationwide framework that clearly sets out the thresholds for when internal border controls can be implemented and how they would apply. The goal should be to free up movement to capitalise on welcome winter rains and get the economy back on track.