CANBERRA, May 27 (Xinhua) -- Australian Prime Minister (PM) Scott Morrison has shared his frustration over domestic border closures in response to the coronavirus crisis.
Morrison on Wednesday called for Western Australia (WA), Queensland, South Australia (SA), Tasmania and so on to re-open their borders, saying that restrictions were hurting the economy.
He said that the closing of internal borders was not advised by the National Cabinet, which is comprised of the PM and state and territory leaders.
"The expert medical advice at a national level never recommended internal borders within Australia," Morrison told Sky News.
"And it's not good for the economy, particularly as we go into this next school holiday season. Those tourism businesses need that support.
"So those individual states, they'll have to justify those decisions themselves and, because it wasn't something that came out of National Cabinet."
Simon Birmingham, the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, said that any state premier who refuses to open their borders must release the scientific evidence on which the decision to close them was based.
"Once it has been demonstrated that all parts of economic activity can be safely reactivated without any increase in COVID numbers, then state borders should open up too," he said, according to The Australian.
"It will be up to each state to explain their decision and the firm health advice and rationale behind keeping their borders closed."
Michael Gunner, the Chief Minister of the Northern Territory (NT), recently flagged that the territory's borders could be re-opened by August as the threat of community transmission of COVID-19 subsides. Enditem
