Aussie states argue over borders

Leaders bickering about easing measures to boost ailing domestic tourism

Australian state and territory leaders are bickering over whether to reopen internal borders, a major step to rejuvenating the country’s A$80bil (RM228.6bil) domestic tourism industry, as part of measures to ease coronavirus restrictions.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said he wants the bulk of all social distancing restrictions removed by July under a three-step plan, as the country continues to report low daily numbers of new Covid-19 cases.

But the implementation of the federal plan is down to the leaders of individual state and territories, who come from opposing political parties and disagree on how safe it is to allow unrestricted movement throughout the country.

New South Wales (NSW) state, the country’s most populous, has called for all borders to be opened as a critical step to giving the ailing economy a much needed boost.

“For Australia to really move forward as a nation during this very difficult economic time as well as difficult health time, we do need our borders down,” NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian told Australian Broadcasting Corp television yesterday.

Domestic tourists spent a record A$80.7bil last year, according to official government data, almost half of all tourism spending.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly said on Wednesday that there was no medical reason to keep borders closed, but many smaller states, which have reported very low numbers of infections and few to no deaths, remain reluctant.

“It’s odd, New South Wales is saying don’t catch public transport in Sydney ... yet they’re saying, ‘Why can’t New South Wales people fly to Western Australia?’” said Western Australia state Premier Mark McGowan.

South Australia Premier Steven Marshall said maintaining the strict border measures meant easing restrictions on local businesses more quickly.

“I promise you that we can create thousands more jobs in South Australia by keeping our borders closed at the moment,” he said.

Queensland state Chief Medical Officer Jeannette Young supported calls to keep borders closed, saying “one case can cause an enormous setback to our plan to open up our communities”.

Australia’s tourism sector was one of the country’s hardest hit by social distancing restrictions, including the closure of its international borders to non-residents and a ban on non-essential domestic travel.

Nearly 600,000 people were in April forced out of work by the coronavirus restrictions. Australia’s unemployment rate rose to 9.6%.

In an effort to cushion the “unprecedented” blow to the economy, the Reserve Bank of Australia slashed interest rates to 0.25% in an emergency meeting in March and launched an unlimited quantitative easing programme.

The government is also splashing out cash, including a A$130bil (RM371bil) wage subsidy scheme, and still the head of the central bank said he could offer no guarantees.