PM’s plea to premiers: no more lockdowns
PRIME Minister Scott Morrison says he will advise premiers not to introduce heavyhanded restrictions or lockdowns ahead of an emergency national cabinet meeting on Wednesday.
With NSW and Victoria recording more than 4000 Covid cases combined on Tuesday, Mr Morrison said Australia needed to learn to live with the virus and declared “we’re not going back to lockdowns”.
“The states have the total authority when it comes to public health orders. The Commonwealth does not have the power to direct those state and territory governments,” he said.
“What I will be saying to them, and I know a number of premiers agree with this, is we have got to move to the next phase of how we live with this virus.
“The time for that heavy hand is behind us. We just need to live with this virus sensibly and practically.”
NSW broke its daily record with 3057 cases on Tuesday, while Victoria had a tally of 1245 infections.
Mr Morrison has called a snap emergency national cabinet meeting to discuss the rise of Omicron but said it was not time to go back to “shutting down people’s lives”.
“One of the key messages is yes, we’re going to need to continue to calibrate how we manage this virus and how we live with this virus in the face of Omicron,” he said. “Of course that is necessary, but we’re not going back to lockdowns.”
Amid the soaring case numbers, there is a push from NSW and Victorian premiers to fast-track the country’s booster program, which currently has a five-month wait between the second and third dose.
The nation's advisory body on vaccines – the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation – is constantly reviewing the gap.
Mr Morrison criticised states for slowing down their side of the vaccine rollout as boosters become critical to being fully protected against Omicron.
“We have seen 1.5 million booster shots now having been undertaken and we urge the states and territories to reopen the state vaccination clinics that have been wound down – more than 200 of them over the last couple of months,” he said.
“We need to get them open again.”