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Chief Minister Andrew Barr hopes state border closures will be a “thing of the past” by mid-year, when millions of Australians are scheduled to have received a COVID-19 vaccine. Mr Barr has also emphasised the importance of a successful vaccine rollout to the ACT economy, saying it would be “really critical” to maintaining Canberra’s strong post-shutdown jobs growth. Border closures have become the first line of defence for some states throughout the pandemic, with premiers racing to impose travel restrictions as cases emerge in other jurisdictions. Mr Barr on Monday expressed optimism that the vaccine rollout would spell an end to state border closures, which caused chaos and confusion across the country over the holiday period. The ACT has not imposed a hard border closure at any point during the pandemic, although it did ban people entering from parts of NSW as case numbers grew in Sydney over Christmas and New Year. “The judgement call that will be necessary at national cabinet is what level of community vaccination will be necessary before we can start easing off some of the public health measures,” Mr Barr said. “I would hope that by the middle of the year state border closures are a thing of the past, but we’ve got to get the vaccine rollout done effectively and the most vulnerable people [vaccinated] as soon as possible.” With the first phase of the vaccine rollout due to start later this month, Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday said state and territory leaders would be confronting a new “risk environment”. He said coronavirus could potentially be managed like “other conditions that are in the community”, although he stressed Australia was still “some way off that’. Mr Barr made the comments as he fronted reporters to talk up the positive employment figures to be included in Tuesday’s ACT budget papers. The forecast contraction in Canberra’s labour market has not eventuated, with employment predicted to grow 4 per cent this financial year. It’s a far better result than even the “upside” scenario Treasury officials had modelled in August. Declaring jobs growth his number one economic priority, Mr Barr stated his ambition to bring the ACT’s unemployment rate of 3.7 per cent back to its pre-pandemic level of 2.9 per cent in the “next few years”. Asked how important the pending vaccine rollout would be to continued jobs growth, Mr Barr said: “Really critical”. “Getting that right, and meeting the targets that the Australian government set to get it done in 2021 is going to be very important for what 2022 and beyond will look like,” he said.
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Chief Minister Andrew Barr hopes state border closures will be a “thing of the past” by mid-year, when millions of Australians are scheduled to have received a COVID-19 vaccine.
Mr Barr has also emphasised the importance of a successful vaccine rollout to the ACT economy, saying it would be “really critical” to maintaining Canberra’s strong post-shutdown jobs growth.
Border closures have become the first line of defence for some states throughout the pandemic, with premiers racing to impose travel restrictions as cases emerge in other jurisdictions.
Mr Barr on Monday expressed optimism that the vaccine rollout would spell an end to state border closures, which caused chaos and confusion across the country over the holiday period.
ACT Chief Minister Andrew Barr hopes state border closures will be “a thing of the past” by mid-2021, as COVID-19 vaccine is rolled out. pic.twitter.com/JoTAmkYlJB
— Dan Jervis-Bardy (@D_JervisBardy) February 8, 2021
The ACT has not imposed a hard border closure at any point during the pandemic, although it did ban people entering from parts of NSW as case numbers grew in Sydney over Christmas and New Year.
“The judgement call that will be necessary at national cabinet is what level of community vaccination will be necessary before we can start easing off some of the public health measures,” Mr Barr said.
“I would hope that by the middle of the year state border closures are a thing of the past, but we’ve got to get the vaccine rollout done effectively and the most vulnerable people [vaccinated] as soon as possible.”
With the first phase of the vaccine rollout due to start later this month, Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Friday said state and territory leaders would be confronting a new “risk environment”. He said coronavirus could potentially be managed like “other conditions that are in the community”, although he stressed Australia was still “some way off that’.
Mr Barr made the comments as he fronted reporters to talk up the positive employment figures to be included in Tuesday’s ACT budget papers.
Asked how important the pending vaccine rollout would be to continued jobs growth, Mr Barr said: “Really critical”.
“Getting that right, and meeting the targets that the Australian government set to get it done in 2021 is going to be very important for what 2022 and beyond will look like,” he said.
