Yahoo Finance Hopes COVID vaccine means borderless travel
Australia's business community wants the coronavirus vaccine rollout to determine when restrictions ease, in a bid to stop "knee-jerk" border closures.
The Business Council of Australia has on Tuesday released its plan to reopen the nation, as the vaccine rollout enters its second week.
The group wants certainty on restrictions, saying domestic border closures cost Australia $2.1 billion each month, and the public is wary of travelling interstate because of snap closures, not the virus.
BCA boss Jennifer Westacott has urged national cabinet to consider the approach.
"As more Australians are vaccinated we can build confidence by unwinding the confusing patchwork of restrictions across the country in line with the reduced risk," she said.
"Now that we know much more about the virus and have a clear vaccination rollout plan, there should be no excuse for knee-jerk reactions."
The JobKeeper wage subsidy is due to finish at the end of this month.
The business group says targeted support should be available for companies hurt by continued health restrictions and international border closures.
"Sectors like tourism, where employment has halved since the pandemic began, will continue to be hard hit while international borders are closed," Ms Westacott said.
"With carefully targeted support we can position these businesses to ramp back up and re-create jobs once it is safe to do so."
Australia recorded no locally acquired cases of coronavirus on Monday, a feat hailed by Health Minister Greg Hunt.
There have been no deaths from coronavirus in Australia this year.
Mr Hunt's focus is on the vaccine rollout, which had a bumpy start last week with an overdose bungle.
More than 33,700 Australians had been vaccinated by Sunday evening, including 10,000 aged care residents.
The rollout is going slower than promised in residential aged care, with about 150 facilities to have completed the first dose of vaccinations by Monday.
Mr Hunt insists the numbers will significantly ramp up as the rollout progresses.
The medical regulator will begin testing the first doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine after they landed from overseas, with the goal of adding them to the rollout from next week.
Pfizer jabs have been used so far.
Pharmaceutical giant CSL will locally manufacture 50 million doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which most Australians will receive.
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