‘Open borders’: National cabinet plea

The plea has been made public ahead of national cabinet’s meeting on Thursday.

Expanding the list of essential workers exempt from close contact isolation, the return to school, the nation’s booster program and child vaccination rollout are also expected to top the afternoon’s agenda.

The impact of tens of thousands of new Covid-19 cases and dozens of deaths each day on the nation’s hospital system will also be discussed.

There are increasing calls for the country to commit to a plan of reopening to international tourism, after the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry made a public plea to restart the struggling tourism sector.

Chief executive Andrew McKellar said the government needed to “get ahead of the curve” and start engaging with industry.

“We understand that at the moment with the Omicron surge it might not happen immediately, but we do think in the weeks ahead, as we get past it and the pressure comes off the health system, we hope, and really the health rationale for keeping these international border restrictions in place can be revisited … quickly,” Mr McKellar told ABC Breakfast.

“We have to plan right now, and realistically it is something that we can do in the near term.

“We understand that that may still be a few weeks away, and we hope that the Omicron wave will abate fairly quickly from here, but we have to look forward and we have to say, ‘well, what are the criteria for removing those border restrictions? How are we going to do that? What are the other things that the industry will need to get itself back on its feet?’

“In the meantime, if we are going to keep those businesses shuttered, then what sort of support will we need to have in order to ensure that the industry can be there when the doors are open.”

Meanwhile, supermarket shelves are now somewhat better stocked than they were before national cabinet agreed to exempt supply chain workers from isolation if they are deemed a close contact, but there is a push for that to be expanded.

Isolation requirements for transport, freight, logistics and non-public-facing healthcare workers, emergency services, teachers and childcare workers have already been eased.

National cabinet will hear an update on the country’s supply chains from Joe Buffone, amid growing calls for those exemptions to be extended to all retailer workers and warehouse distribution centre workers.

Rapid antigen tests and the country’s healthcare systems are also expected to be high on the agenda.

Last week, Victoria called a Code Brown. No other state has followed suit, but each is expected to provide an update to fellow premiers, chief ministers and the Prime Minister on Thursday.

Originally published as Plea for international tourism resumption, isolation exemption expansion ahead of national cabinet