Coronavirus: nation without borders within sight at last

Border controls in every Australian state and territory could be dropped or significantly relaxed within weeks.

Police patrol the Albury Border Check point in Wodonga Place. Picture: Simon Dallinger

Border controls in every Australian state and territory could be dropped or significantly relaxed within weeks as Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk prepares an announcement on the NSW border for the eve of the state election, and the West Australian government comes under increasing pressure to open up to the rest of Australia.

Tasmania on Monday lowered its border to New Zealand and all the states and territories except NSW and Victoria.

Speculation is growing that WA Premier Mark McGowan will be forced to reconsider the nation’s strictest interstate border controls on fresh health advice expected as early as Friday.

In his latest advice to the McGowan government on October 14, WA Chief Health Officer Andy Robertson said the state’s current border measures should be reviewed in four weeks if cases in Victoria fell below five a day on a rolling five-day average.

NSW authorities continue to work towards a plan to open the state’s border with Victoria by Christmas, but only if the government is satisfied measures such as QR codes are in place and working at places such as pubs and restaurants. NSW Premier GladysBerejiklian has said she will defer to health advice on the decision.

“The real test is what happens to the virus when you ease restrictions. When you shut down the economy (and) don’t allow people to move freely … of course the virus is under control,” she said. “The test is when you ease restrictions. We know that from experience.”

As the McGowan government prepares to receive new health advice for WA, where there has been no community spread since April, Human Rights Watch released a report that documented cruel family separations as a result of the state’s tough border regime.

The report describes WA’s exemptions system — which has allowed exempted workers and billionaires to move freely on business — as lacking in transparency.

The cases Human Rights Watch examined include a father in Queensland who has been separated from his three young children for 10 months, a Melbourne couple whose mothers both live in Perth and are suffering from multiple sclerosis and cancer, and a woman who was refused entry four times before she could return to care for her father who had broken his spine.

Sophie McNeil.

Human Rights Watch Australia researcher Sophie McNeill says the WA government should make more exceptions for compassionate cases, prioritise family reunions, provide greater transparency about the approval process, and provide clearer explanations to people who have been refused permission to return home.

“It has been seven months now, and a state that has a budget surplus and is doing well compared to the rest of the world should not be leaving so many people in distress,” Ms McNeill said.

“West Australia police continue to deny requests, even though applicants are willing to comply with quarantine conditions. Other regions in the country have successfully cut transmission without adopting such harsh restrictions, showing that Western Australia’s tactics are neither necessary nor proportionate.”

She said there was no formal review process if an application was refused, adding: “You get rejected and have to keep applying again.”

Laura Mitchell, 31, said she ­applied seven times to return to Perth from Sydney after her brother and mother fell ill. She returned to Perth last week after her eighth application was accepted, and is now in hotel quarantine.

She had supplied a COVID plan, letters from a doctor and her employer, and her mother’s hospital referral. Only when she was advised to write a direct email to the WA Police was her eighth attempt approved just four hours later.

“The frustrating thing is when I did arrive at Perth airport, a man behind me who said he didn’t have a pass was let in. Had I known that I would have done that months ago,” she said. “If people are willing to go into quarantine when they get here and get a COVID test, why are they stopping them?”