States push to slash international arrivals as Coalition pledges to ‘look at evidence’
The Morrison government could further tighten Australia’s international border in response to campaigning by state premiers who want to cut overseas arrivals.
The prime minister, Scott Morrison, is due to face state and territory leaders in a national cabinet meeting on Friday after a week of public brawling over the sluggish Covid-19 vaccination rollout and whether or not the AstraZeneca vaccine should be administered to people under 40.
The federal finance minister, Simon Birmingham, told reporters on Thursday that 680,000 people had returned during the pandemic and that slowing the rate of overseas arrivals was on the table. Birmingham said the government would “continue to look at the evidence”.
The Victorian and Queensland premiers, Daniel Andrews and Annastacia Palaszczuk, initiated the arrivals debate during Monday night’s national cabinet meeting. On Thursday, Andrews declared the “only way to pull up a Delta variant outbreak is to lock everyone down” and it was therefore “better to lock some people out than to lock everyone down”.
Cutting international arrivals is also supported by the West Australian premier, Mark McGowan, who on Thursday described people bringing Covid back from overseas as the “biggest threat vector”. He called on the commonwealth to “very, very heavily” crack down on the number of exemptions granted for Australians to fly overseas. The premiers say because the Delta strain is more infectious, overseas arrivals should be slowed until the national Covid vaccination rollout gathers pace.
Data released on Thursday showed only 7.92% of Australians over 15 were fully vaccinated and Birmingham acknowledged New Zealand and Australia were currently “at the back of the queue” for Pfizer deliveries because of high infection rates in the northern hemisphere.
The Morrison government has faced sustained criticism from Australians stranded overseas and created controversy when it imposed a ban on returns from India. But Victoria wants the prime minister to agree to a 50-80% reduction in the number of returning travellers while Queensland is pushing for a 50-75% cut.
Recent outbreaks, which have resulted in lockdowns, have been triggered by people in the hotel quarantine system. Greater Sydney, parts of Queensland, Perth, Darwin and Alice Springs remain in lockdown. On Thursday, New South Wales confirmed 24 new coronavirus cases, including healthcare workers, and Queensland another two.
“We have it within our power to dramatically reduce the number of people who are coming back just for these next three or four months, until we get a critical mass of people with a jab, protection for the community, including the vulnerable,” Andrews said.
While previous iterations of the hotel quarantine debate led to states being allowed to temporarily suspend arrivals or reduce their own caps, the Labor premiers will this time demand a nationwide reduction.
The move is targeted predominantly at NSW, which receives the lion’s share of arrivals with 3,000 people per week returning to Australia through hotel quarantine. It is now under fire for the generosity of its cap as other states cite the risk of outbreaks spread
ing from NSW.
Queensland is also keen to push for an expansion in the categories of workers required to be vaccinated against Covid, including fly-in fly-out workers and domestic airline staff. In future, this could be expanded to include all people using hotel quarantine to return to Australia and anyone who flies frequently.
As well as the debate about arrivals, the Morrison government’s decision to expand access to the AstraZeneca vaccine for people under 40 has proved controversial, with Queensland leading the public pushback.
Birmingham on Thursday said the “scaremongering” coming from Queensland’s chief health officer, Dr Jeannette Young, and the premier about the risks associated with the jab for people under 60 gave comfort to antivaccination campaigns, which was unhelpful given there was already vaccine hesitancy.
Some medical experts have criticised Young’s forceful public warning to young people and Andrews did not rush to endorse Queensland’s position on Thursday.
But the co-chair of the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation, Associate Prof Christopher Blyth, said young people should only consider getting the AstraZeneca vaccine if the need was “pressing”.
“There are some situations where that would be warranted, but they are quite small,” he told ABC radio. “The Atagi advice is that Pfizer is our preference for those under the age of 60.”