Grey nomads dreaming that the Northern Territory, South Australia and Western Australia might soon announce a tri-border pact to open up their borders with each other have had their hopes dashed.
The head of the Darwin Major Business Group, Ian Kew, had floated the idea of the three jurisdictions – which have just a handful of active Covid-19 cases between them – forming a sort of coronavirus-free bloc to leverage an economic benefit through tourism.
However, the NT Chief Minister, Michael Gunner swiftly dismissed the idea.
“The borders will be the absolute last thing to go,” he said. “We are not opening our borders yet. The answer is no. I’m sorry, but it’s too early. It’s too risky.”
The Chief Minister said opening the NT’s borders would be the easiest decision to make, but insisted he wasn’t in the job to make easy decisions.
“South Australia cannot guarantee the security of their border with Victoria, which means they can’t guarantee security on our border,” he said. “WA had a coronavirus outbreak just across the border in the Kimberley … what if we hadn’t secured our borders before then?”
Mr Gunner said that when it came to saving jobs, I listen to business groups. When it comes to saving lives, he would always take the advice of the health experts.
“We are the safest place in Australia because of our secure borders and by being the safest place in Australia, our businesses can be the first to re-open, and Territorians can be the first to get back to work,” he said. “I’m not going to risk all of our progress. I’m not going to risk lives. Too many people have sacrificed too much to stuff it up now.”
Why doesn’t these states just close borders permanently, then is in NSW, can charge visitors a thousand bucks for them to visit our stat. WA, has always wanted to sucseed from Australia, and if the HY wants to do it also, then the feds can stop funding them, it would be much cheaper for the rest of us. I can see the borders staying closed for up to 2 years, and the state governments destroying their economies over it.
Yes Ric, WA has wanted to secede but we are stuck with you lot from the East. WA produces over 50% of the grain in this country.
We actually keep you wise people from the East not the other way around.
Yes western Australia has always wanted to secede from Australia, they are not Australians in their hearts ,they should just all move to an island in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The rest of us ARE Australians.
What??
Shulan in China has just been locked down for the 2nd time.
We can’t afford to be too complacent with this Covid 19.
They opened their borders in China too early.
We in Western Australia, are happy to open regional borders but not state borders slowly and international borders much later, probably 4 to 5 months.
NSW is the biggest grain producer in Australia. WA produces the most wheat. But the Eastern states grow a far superior quality of wheat. It dosent really matter..we are all Australian and fought together side by side in all the wars.