Scott Morrison has won a face-saving compromise on border restrictions out of National Cabinet in return for a new approach to national leadership decision making.
It’s still fuzzy, it’s still a long way off and it’s not unanimous but at least the Prime Minister won “in principle” support to discuss substituting hard borders with blanket denials to entire states with a more fluid system of denying entry from infection hot spots.
The National Cabinet decision, with Western Australia remaining the standout state, is also aimed at reaching the level of opening borders, travel and commerce by Christmas which had previously been aimed at July.
Even Queensland’s Anastasia Palaszczuk has agreed to talk about using some form of hot spot definition — with the Commonwealth’s definition as a starting point — with the goal of having a more open economy by Christmas.
Of course, this is still a fracturing of the previous unity of National Cabinet but it allows Morrison to talk about co-operation and compromise and present a different benchmark for success.
Those leaders who want to agree to proposals can do so and those who wish “not to get on the bus” can do so.
It’s well short of the unanimous decisions of the past but, given progress on movement of agricultural workers between three states and two territories, it’s not a complete collapse of the new federation system.
The goals on borders have changed and so have the goalposts for the National Cabinet.
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