Prime Minister Scott Morrison insists the country must start to reopen when it hits vaccination targets, declaring lockdowns and heavy restrictions are "not a sustainable way" to live.
The national plan to ease crippling coronavirus rules is in jeopardy, with states including Western Australia and Queensland threatening to maintain restrictions even once targets are reached.
Under a reopening plan based on modelling from the Doherty Institute, and agreed by national cabinet, state or territories would ease some restrictions once it vaccinates 70 per cent of people aged over 16, and the same coverage has been achieved nationwide.
At 80 per cent, lockdowns would only be used in exceptional circumstances and Australia would start to reopen to the world.
Doubts over the safety of reopening the country at those rates have risen in recent weeks, as coronavirus outbreaks have worsened in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra.
Mr Morrison used a press conference in Parliament House on Monday morning to heap more pressure on the states to hold true to the national roadmap out of the pandemic.
"Once you get to 70 per cent of your country that is eligible for the vaccine, and 80 per cent, the plan sets out that we have to move forward. We cannot hold back," he said.
Mr Morrison said with high rates of vaccination, Australia should not fear the prospect of cases rising as the country reopened. Instead, it should prepare for and "embrace" it.
"[Lockdown] is taking a heavy toll and so they must only continue for as long as they are absolutely necessary and not a day more," he told reporters.
"It is always darkest before the dawn and I think these lockdowns are demonstration of that but the dawn is not far away and we are working towards that dawn and we are hastening towards the dawn.
"We should not delay it, we should prepare for it. We should not fear it, we should embrace it and we should move forward together."
