“Industry welcomes the progress towards the removal of internal travel restrictions imposed by state and territory governments with Queensland and South Australia slowly unravelling the tight restrictions put in place at the height of the pandemic,” Innes Willox, Chief Executive of the national employer association Ai Group said today.
“Australians need a much freer flow of people, goods and services across state boundaries to boost hopes of an early and sustained recovery in activity and employment from recession levels.
“South Australia has sensibly used falling case numbers in NSW to trigger opening the border between the two states. Queensland too could match this welcome development with a total removal of border barriers, especially as case numbers are now lower than before the latest closure.
“Given the fall in cases in NSW, the sharp fall in cases outside hotel quarantine, and the commitment to first-class testing and tracking, the arguments for keeping borders closed are weaker than ever and we urge all governments to fully reopen state boundaries.
“We recommend that NSW reopen its border to all of regional Victoria immediately and WA and Tasmania should take full account of the rapidly falling case numbers and help to open-up Australia.
“Common-sense should hopefully prevail,” Mr Willox said.
