Why haven’t the ‘border wars’ given Australia a travel bubble?

Trade riches, billions of tourism dollars and personal relationships are at stake, yet there’s no sign of a travel bubble between Australian states and territories that have Covid-19 under control

Tuesday 26 May 2020

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Let me begin by declaring my South Australian residency.

Now that’s done, I feel qualified to weigh into The Border Stoush – a political issue which has grown into a bizarre form of tribalism to entertain Australians in lieu of football.

A quick recap: last week, NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian doubled down on a few Q&A jibes to blitz the news cycle with calls for interstate coronavirus border restrictions to be dropped as soon as possible.

Queensland premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, so far successful in containing the virus, replied that opening up would be “absolutely negligent” with ongoing community transmission in NSW and Victoria. She then flagged a closure until September (despite publicising July). Leaning on WA’s even better track record, premier Mark McGowan thrust further in riposte, demonising “the east” in a flurry of press conferences and venturing that he wouldn’t be lectured by the state that “had the Ruby Princess”.

The cycle repeated daily. Talkback radio and online comment sections lit up with ‘us vs them’ fervour. The leaders of SA, NT, Tasmania and ACT, also conscious of their own successful virus management, may have been quieter but still expressed desire for border restrictions until NSW and Victoria could catch up.

East, east. NSW, Victoria. See the pattern here?

In fairness, with local coronavirus infection rates as they are, Palaszczuk, McGowan and anyone else could rightly question why people from NSW or Victoria should be allowed to visit the six other jurisdictions of Australia.

But there’s the rub. There are six other jurisdictions of Australia.

That’s over 6.5 million square kilometres of mainland and nearly 11 million people. Trade, tourism, families and relationships – which you could broadly categorise as everything people live for – exist in a big way across that subset of borders. And right now, they’re in a chokehold, while we wait for two other states to ostensibly eradicate a virus that may never be cured.

I’ll declare another interest: I’ve felt the effects of this. I was in a long-distance relationship with an ex-Adelaidean in Perth, and I was preparing to relocate there this year. However, after two corona-cancelled visits, she struggled badly with the indefinite nature of WA’s border closure and we had to accept the relationship could not continue under the circumstances.

My personal investment means I’ve followed this issue closely. Like most people, I’m horrified by coronavirus, and I supported restricting movement across borders while we all stayed at home flattening the curve from April to now. But why are we continuing to block movement between jurisdictions which have now successfully (and almost identically) managed the virus down to zero?

Let’s look at tourism – an obvious casualty of border restrictions.

For the year ending December 2019, interstate tourists spent $2.6bn in WA. Put that together with the international tourism that’s also been nixed and you get half the state’s total revenue from ‘overnight’ visitors (those who stay at least one night).

In the Northern Territory, interstate travel alone was worth $1.6bn – triple the expenditure of its intrastate tourists. South Australia’s interstate visitors brought in $2.6bn. And then there’s Queensland – where interstate tourism was worth a whopping $9.2bn.

That’s big money vanishing from state economies, not to mention the jobs and businesses sidelined as a result.

Annastacia Palaszczuk knows this. But yet again, she tied the border shutdown purely to NSW and Victoria. Addressing Gladys Berejiklian’s comments, she looked forward to being “the number one supporter going down there (to NSW and Victoria) and urging people to come here (Queensland)”. Pity no journalists suggested that with a little coordination, there’s millions of people in five other jurisdictions she could spruik tourism to right now.

Neither have many journalists properly interrogated Mark McGowan beyond his wall of “east” rhetoric. The Seven network quoted him as having had “broad discussions” with SA and the NT about a travel bubble, but he also remarked that their border restrictions were softer and he’d “prefer to rely upon our own”.

SA and NT strictly enforce a 14-day quarantine period for non-essential visitors. In the past four weeks, SA and NT have each recorded two new cases imported from overseas. WA has recorded 15.

Funnily enough, WA Chief Health Officer Dr Andrew Robertson – the man who seemingly holds the key to the state’s borders – has actually name-dropped SA and NT, along with Queensland, as exemplary proof that border control works.

So why does McGowan think the SA and NT borders are soft? Why is nobody pressing him to properly justify his refusal to open a travel bubble with these jurisdictions, give swathes of businesses a lifeline, and start paving a way forward for our country?

At a national cabinet meeting earlier in May, state and territory leaders sat with the Prime Minister, further discussed the results of thorough and bespoke health modelling studies, and emerged with a three-step roadmap announced by the PM that included all interstate travel resuming by July.

Quite clearly there must have been a collective appetite for eased border restrictions and the benefits they’d bring. It’s surreal to think that in a matter of weeks, that appetite has been completely lost – including any desire to problem-solve through a temporary travel bubble – simply because two states are lagging behind the rest.

NSW and Victoria are now easing their internal restrictions, so it could be a while until they hold down the hallowed zero rate. It has to happen eventually though. And Gladys has even assured us that if she gets outcast on border policy, her heavy-hitting state with its diversified economy “will be fine”. Like that mate on a night out who tells us to go ahead because they’ll find us at the club later.

So, remainder of Australia: let’s kick on. Before Clive Palmer steals our thunder.