Vaccine passport talk ‘too early’, keep borders shut: Premier

Tasmanian Liberal Premier Peter Gutwein has slapped down the vaccine passport concept as premature and opposes reopening international borders ‘anytime soon’.

Tasmanian Premier Peter Gutwein, in Launceston. Picture: Chris Kidd

Tasmanian Liberal Premier Peter Gutwein says he opposes reopening national borders “any time soon”, and has instead urged the “cautious” expansion of travel bubbles.

In his first interview since winning the May 1 state election, Mr Gutwein – handed the top job just before coronavirus struck – said the experience had taught him to make hard decision, quickly. However, he urged caution in response to calls, including by Scott Morrison, for vaccine passports to allow those inoculated for Covid-19 to escape state border shutdowns and quarantine.

He said he would want to see all priority groups – including over 50s – to have achieved high vaccination rates before considering the passport concept.

He also described as “terribly insensitive” comments by Virgin Australia chief executive Jayne Hrdlicka that Australians had to accept deaths so that borders could open well before 2022.

“I think we need to be cautious – those travel bubbles that might be possible are the cautious steps we should be taking,” he said. “Opening up our borders to the world is not something we should be doing any time soon.”

Mr Gutwein said the pandemic had prompted a realisation by state leaders that protecting their citizens was their core role, despite the commonwealth’s traditional remit on borders and defence.

“We’ll always be a state of a federation but the one thing that all state leaders did was to take on, very clearly, the responsibly for the safety and welfare of their own state or territory as being their main priority and key goal,” he said.

“Tasmania (was) ideally placed to exercise control over our own borders …and that has stood the state in very good stead (with no community cases for 12 months).”

Mr Gutwein, a former publican and financial adviser, became premier in January 2020 on the sudden retirement from politics of Will Hodgman.

He said a key lesson from being thrown into pandemic management was how to make tough decisions, quickly, after taking advice. “Informed decision-making and being able to make decisions quickly is something that the Tasmanian community appreciated and accepted,” he said.

“You don’t always get everything right, but if you take a decision then people can take a direction and make their decisions based around that.”

Given his new-found confidence following his endorsement as Premier at the ballot box, it appears this approach may extend to broader policy issues, with Mr Gutwein flagging a “determination” to overcome union opposition to a TAFE overhaul. This involves allowing more classes out of business hours and end long term breaks, while making TAFE a government business enterprise.

“The challenge of skills and training is simply one we must get on top of – it is both our single largest challenge and our greatest opportunity,” he said.

“We have a wall of (trades) work in front of us but we need people who are skilled and trained. TAFE needs to be more responsive – more like the businesses it’s there to serve, so I’m determined we will see the flexibilities required.”