If you guys think we’re going to have a major constitutional rewrite to remove power away from the states to close borders in a health emergency forget it. It’s never going to happen. The High Court has ruled states have these powers and it is constitutionally legal. Australia has a very poor record of approving referendums, only 8 of the 44 referendum questions posed to the Australian people have been approved and generally for minimalist changes that are accepted by both sides of politics.
The truth is the border restrictions are very popular with the general public. All premiers who institute them have been or will be re-elected. Keeping the virus out has probably allowed more work in hospitality than stand downs in aviation. Sydney’s hospitality would’ve been crushed on NYE despite Gladys’s attempt at an open economy.
The way to get around this is to remove the reason for the health emergency in the first place. One, quarantine in remote areas to reduce capital city spread (this latest NSW/Vic outbreak was spread from one mystery traveller on the northern beaches) and then expedite the rollout of the vaccine to allow a herd immunity to be in place within a few months like the UK are doing. Both of which should be done by the Federal Government which for the most part has been MIA.