Australia has been warned it faces a pressure cooker moment as state premiers urge a dramatic reduction in international arrivals to stop coronavirus outbreaks.
Labor premiers in Queensland, Victoria and Western Australia are calling on Scott Morrison to reduce passenger caps.
"We are at a pressure cooker moment," Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told reporters in Brisbane on Wednesday.
"Right across Australia, it's like a pressure cooker."
Outbreaks of the contagious Delta variant have plunged more than 12 million Australians into lockdown.
Ms Palaszczuk argues lower caps, ensuring arrivals are fully vaccinated and putting quarantine centres in regional areas will reduce the need to shut cities down.
NSW Liberal Premier Gladys Berejiklian said arrival caps were for the federal government to decide.
"New South Wales will always do our fair share as we have done. We do it without complaint," she told reporters in Sydney.
Ms Berejiklian said about half of the people coming through Sydney ended up in other states.
"I'm interested that other premiers are complaining about what they have to do, but it's far less to what New South Wales is doing."
Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews believes the caps should be temporarily halved with WA's Mark McGowan backing his colleague.
Australian Industry Group chief executive Innes Willox said further limiting international arrivals would ignore critical skill shortages.
"This would be take us in precisely the wrong direction," he said.
The major employer group is suggesting home quarantine with strict conditions and additional capacity as ways to bring in more workers.
Federal Labor health spokesman Mark Butler said premiers were best placed to judge appropriate arrival numbers.
He believes a reduction is likely given caps were cut during previous outbreaks.
"This would be a lot easier if we had purpose built quarantine facilities in place, as we should have by now," Mr Butler told Southern Cross Austereo.
"If the prime minister had acted late last year, we'd be up and running with them right now."
