PM says states must open their borders once vaccination targets are reached
The Prime Minister Scott Morrison insists state leaders have a duty to reopen their borders once 80 percent of their population has been fully vaccinated.
Mr Morrison has told Channel Seven, Premiers need to honour the National Plan so Australians can have “their lives back” by Christmas.
“That’s within the gift of governments, and that’s a gift I’d like to see us give them,” he said.
“There comes a time when you’ve got to honour the arrangement you’ve made with the Australian people, and that is when you get to 80 per cent vaccination, it’s very clear that you can start opening up.”
Under the National Plan agreed to by state and territory leaders, restrictions will gradually ease once 70 and 80 percent of people have received both doses.
Some states that have managed to keep the virus out of their communities have expressed concern about reopening their borders even once the country has achieved high vaccination rates.
“It’s very clear, I can’t see any reason why Australians should be kept from each other and so that puts a heavy, heavy responsibility on those who would seek to prevent that from happening,” Mr Morrison said.
“Of course, there is common sense things that we will do, there’ll be the QR code log ins and all that sort of stuff, wearing masks perhaps occasionally in particular settings but, you know, there comes a time when you just got to move on and get on with it.”
