As various states and territories take a different approach to the lifting of restrictions surrounding camping, travel, and borders, life has got very complicated for grey nomads trying to plan future adventures.
As coronavirus infection numbers stay low, there are however increasingly promising signs that life on the road will soon return to something very loosely resembling a new ‘normal’.
Of course, it is the borders opening that remains the big sticking point, with Tasmania, the Northern Territory, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia refusing to buckle to pressure from the Federal Government and New South Wales to allow interstate holidaymakers once again.
Nonetheless, despite a lot of political posturing, there are occasionally some encouraging indications that caravanners and motorhomers seeking some winter warmth may still get their chance this year.
Although Northern Territory Chief Minister Michael Gunner has consistently refused to give a timeline for reopening the Territory’s borders, he has now said this could happen before community transmission is eliminated across the country.
“We are looking at the community transmission rate down south. We have a flexible trigger, not a hard trigger to open borders,” Mr Gunner said. “We’re not quite there yet … zero would be the best number … if we’re flexible it might mean that community transmission is not at zero, but it’s happening in a way that it doesn’t give us the concern that it’s going to get across the border.”
He has previously said the borders would not be reopened until “the rest of Australia is consistently as safe as the Northern Territory”.
With no active cases in the Territory, restrictions on travel within the NT are to be lifted ahead of schedule on June 5.
“We can lift our biosecurity zones safely because of our strict border controls,” Mr Gunner said. “I think closing the borders is one of the best things I’ve done to keep the Territory the safest place in the country.”
Last week, Federal Deputy Chief Medical Officer Paul Kelly questioned the logic in preventing interstate travel.
“From a medical point of view, I can’t see why the borders are still closed,” he said. “But, as I said, that’s for the states and territories themselves to decide when that time is right for them.”
Paul Kelly claims to be a Western Australian but I don’t think he has ever travelled to the Kimberly’s. The reason the Kimberly’s will still be closed for a while yet is, as the Premier of Western Australia explained on the midday ABC announcement, there are many aboriginal communities in the North and we don’t want Covid 19 infecting them.
Simple as that. The Commonwealth Government have a say in the closure as well. This is not a political issue, it is purely a health issue, By the way I am a Liberal supporter but find Mr Magowan a very good Labor Premier.