Coronavirus: Plea for border waivers for healthcare

Pressure is mounting on premiers to urgently introduce nationwide rules allowing Australians to access healthcare across state borders.

Water Resources, Drought, Rural Finance, Natural Disaster and Emergency Management Minister David Littleproud. Picture: Gary Ramage

Premiers face growing calls to urgently introduce nationwide rules allowing Australians to ­access healthcare across state borders, after Queensland ­“relented” and lifted restrictions on farmers and agricultural workers.

The move, which allows Queensland and NSW residents to travel between the states for agricultural work without having to quarantine, was applauded by governments and farming groups who said NSW and South Australia should adopt similar border exemptions for Victorian farmers.

Federal Agriculture Minister David Littleproud also warned there was still “silence” on cross-border health issues, with some residents in northern NSW unable to travel to Queensland to see their doctor or specialist.

“I get premiers want to beat their chest, be parochial about their state because it plays well politically, but these are human beings,” Mr Littleproud said.

“These are your fellow Australians that rely on you, rely on another state to provide critical healthcare. That shouldn’t be taken away because they live on the other side of a border.”

While national cabinet will consider an agriculture workers code when it meets on September 4, which will outline COVID-safe plans for farmers and ensure their movements across borders can be traced, Victorian Nationals MP Anne Webster said codes were also required for healthcare and education.

“Two weeks from now is too far away,” Dr Webster said. “Genuine human emergencies could be avoided if these codes were put in place, saving a lot of heartache. Until then, communities are having to suffer the consequences of unconstrained belligerence of rival state governments, with crossborder permits repeatedly expiring and rules changing regularly.”

Nearly 30 of Australia’s leading business groups wrote to Scott Morrison and the premiers on Monday demanding an “easily understood” set of rules for border restrictions. While the business leaders said national cabinet’s move to define a hotspot was encouraging, a national framework clearly setting out the thresholds of when internal border controls could be implemented and how they would apply was “urgently needed”.

“We accept that states and territories have the right to ease — or reimpose — restrictions at a different pace based on medical advice among other factors,” the letter states. “However, many of the border measures imposed to date appear to be arbitrary.”

The Prime Minister wants national cabinet to agree on what constitutes a COVID-19 hotspot to ensure border restrictions are not imposed on an arbitrary basis.

Moree Plains Shire Council mayor Katrina Humphries, whose border community in northwestern NSW has not been included in Queensland’s safe travel bubble, said the definition of a hotspot had to be fast-tracked. “Shut the hotspots down but don’t punish everybody,” she said.