Covid-19: Scott Morrison mission to accelerate freedom plans for vaccinated

Scott Morrison will accelerate the shift to home quarantine, integrating QR codes and vaccination certificates and lifting caps on international arrivals.

Scott Morrison on Tuesday told national cabinet to get on with jabbing Australians. Picture: Gary Ramage

Scott Morrison will accelerate the shift to home quarantine and ­potentially shorter isolation ­periods, integrating QR codes and vaccination certificates and lifting caps on international arrivals to implement the national reopening plan when states and territories hit vaccine thresholds.

The Prime Minister on Tuesday told national cabinet to get on with jabbing Australians after rejecting criticism from Premier Daniel Andrews that Victorians had been short-changed on ­vaccines.

Mr Morrison said he had stopped a push to take vaccines from other states and give them to NSW and praised Tasmania, South Australia, the ACT and Northern Territory for leading vaccine efforts despite not receiving brought-forward jabs.

“Victoria had doses brought forward in their case as well on two occasions. In their first crisis they had and which they were able to come out of. And when they were hit again, we brought forward doses to Victoria,” Mr Morrison told Sky News.

“We’ve just gone from 4.5 million mRNA Pfizer doses to nine million in one month. That’s all being delivered, not by state governments, by the federal government. And we’re getting it out to all of them, and we look forward to them getting them into arms.”

Mr Andrews said if Victoria had received its share of doses, the state would be closer to reaching 70 and 80 per cent vaccine targets.

“I don’t begrudge any other state getting their fair share but that’s predicated on us getting our fair share. The national plan is predicated on us all moving together. Some don’t like to see this as a race but a race it surely is,” he said.

“What I didn’t know was that Premier (Gladys) Berejiklian’s in a sprint while the rest of us are supposed to do some sort of egg and spoon thing. We want our fair share. These allocations which are totally unfair and were under the table need to stop and we need to get a make-good. We need to get those doses that we didn’t get fast-tracked to us.”

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said the Morrison government shouldn’t pick fights “when another state is getting more vaccines”.

“Don’t blame Queensland and Western Australia for getting out the vaccine that we have available,” she said.

Ahead of Friday’s national cabinet meeting, Mr Morrison said he was writing to state and territory leaders to get timetables on introducing home quarantine and integrating check-in technologies. “For international travel to work – we need home quarantine done,” he said. “Home quarantine is where we go next and the length of that quarantine also is what we’re looking at.”

He said access to ­venues and planes for vaccinated Australians would be facilitated by QR code readers that check-in people and record vaccination status, enabling “fully vaccinated theatres, fully vaccinated events, a Bluesfest which is fully vaccinated”.

“So (at) these events people can get back on stage, restaurants can get back and open their doors to their patrons and be able to operate under much less restrictions.”

Mr Morrison said pubs, cafes, sporting venues, restaurants and shops had the right to refuse entry to unvaccinated people and vaccine certificates would be needed for international travel.

He said while NSW and Victoria would have slower returns to freedom, at 80 per cent vaccine coverage “domestic restrictions on vaccinated persons should be lifted”. “We’re not talking about willy-nilly movement of people who are unvaccinated around the country … That’s a nonsense. That’s not what is under contemplation and I don’t think any premier thinks that’s the case.”