First it was schools, now state borders appear as the next point of tension between the federal and state governments, as the commonwealth seeks a return to unrestricted domestic travel, while states with low rates of infection are anxious to preserve their isolation.
All states and territories except New South Wales, Victoria and the ACT have put some border restrictions in place to limit coronavirus transmission, although the commonwealth insists it has never recommended closing state borders.
With mass international travel to Australia all but closed off for the foreseeable future, domestic travel is seen as a vital reignition for a battered tourism sector.
But on Monday the Queensland premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, suggested its borders were unlikely to open before September, and other states have shown no urgency to open up. On Tuesday South Australia, Western Australia and the Northern Territory all reiterated that they would not be changing their position anytime soon. The Tasmanian premier, Peter Gutwein, said it was far too early to consider opening the island state’s borders and that he would not set a date for reopening until at least July.
The federal tourism minister, Simon Birmingham, has urged state and territory governments to admit domestic holidaymakers as soon as possible.
“Those states who’ve got border controls in place, assuming we’ve continued to see very low rates of transmission of Covid-19, ought to be looking at opening up their borders,” Birmingham said.
“We need people moving across this country again when it’s safe to do so.”
Tourism employs one million Australians – one in 13 workers – but the sector has been devastated by the travel bans and lockdown measures imposed to contain the spread of Covid-19.
The executive director of the Australian Tourism Industry Council, Simon Westaway, said a nationally coordinated plan was needed for the border closures to be lifted.
“We’ve got to get some sensibility about these borders. We need to see some better coordination, and if it requires the commonwealth to get more involved then it should. The states have to get on board.”
Westaway said the domestic visitor market was worth about $100bn a year to Australia, and the industry was currently losing between $7bn and $9bn a month. Queensland, he said, had already lost $10bn.
“The industry’s been preparing itself to reopen, people are doing it really tough, but the roadmap from the commonwealth seemed to offer a way out. So it’s really disappointing.”
Scott Morrison has previously said he hoped Australians could travel interstate in time for the July school holidays, and the NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has urged her state and territory counterparts to “get those borders open as soon as possible”.
She said she did not want to see the perverse situation where people from NSW would be free to travel to Auckland – under a proposed trans-Tasman bubble – before they could go to Brisbane.
On Tuesday Qantas said it was planning to roll out new health measures – including masks for passengers, enhanced aircraft cleaning, and increased physical distancing – from 12 June “in preparation for domestic travel restrictions easing”.
The commonwealth’s deputy chief medical officer, Paul Kelly, said the border closures were purely state initiatives.
“At the national level, we’ve never suggested that internal borders within Australia should be closed.”
But states with no active cases or low rates of infection remain hesitant to open their borders to populations with higher rates of infection and continued community transmission.
NSW and Victoria, Australia’s two most populous states, are the largest state economies, together accounting for 56% of the Australian economy. They are also the jurisdictions hardest hit by Covid-19 cases, with 65% of the national total between them.
South Australia, the NT and the ACT have no active cases of Covid-19. Those jurisdictions have reported no new infections for more than a week – four weeks in the case of the NT.
The Western Australian premier, Mark McGowan, said Birmingham could “say what he likes”, it would not change his state’s approach.
“The border with the east will stay up for as long as is necessary to protect the health of Western Australians,” he said on Tuesday.
The Northern Territory’s chief minister, Michael Gunner, insisted the border would reopen only when medical advice said it was safe.
“We love having other Aussies here and we can’t wait to have them back – but only when it’s safe.”
The South Australian premier, Steven Marshall, gave no earlier date than the end of the year for when restrictions might be lifted.
“I just don’t think there’s any chance that we’ll be opening them anytime soon – there’s still too many cases interstate,” he said. “I think that they will open this year but we’ll only do it once the other states get themselves into a good position as well.”
Email: sign up for our daily coronavirus newsletter
App: download it and never miss the biggest stories
Social: follow us on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter
Podcast: listen to our daily episodes on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or search "Full Story" in your favourite app
And Palaszczuk said the reopening of the Queensland border might be four months away.
“I would say that things would look more positive towards September – having said that, I do not want to rule anything out, I will give you that advice at the end of May, as quickly as possible,” she told the ABC.
She said Queensland’s decision was based on the “best health advice” and would be reviewed monthly.
“There is still community transmission in Victoria and in New South Wales so as soon as my chief health officer says I can relax those restrictions, we absolutely will,” she said.
Palaszczuk said she was also open to a domestic travel “bubble”, where people from states with no or low infection numbers, such as WA, the NT and SA, could travel before those from high-infection states such as Victoria or NSW.
