Berejiklian urges other states to lift cap on international arrivals

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has urged the other states to increase their hotel quarantine capacity to clear the 23,000-strong backlog of Australians stranded overseas.

With the national cabinet coming under pressure to lift the cap on 4000 international arrivals a week, Ms Berejiklian said Sydney Airport was accepting 2500 people but did not want to exceed that because it would divert resources away from contact tracing.

However, she said the other states should take their "fair share". Perth is receiving 525 people a week; Brisbane and Adelaide accept 500 each.

"We know the hotel quarantine system in NSW is managed well but we are doing so much more than the other states combined," Ms Berejiklian said.

"I just say to the other states, I'm sure many of our Aussies overseas wouldn't mind flying into Brisbane or Perth or even Adelaide and then getting a domestic flight back to their homes."

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said she had been looking at the cap and would provide an update at Friday's national cabinet meeting.

"Where we can take some more, I think we should because I think it is really important that overseas families can also come home during this global pandemic time," she said.

Home Affairs Minister Peter Dutton said on Sunday he would happily double the cap on arrivals if the states agreed to increase their hotel quarantine limits.

[Queenslanders'] health and the economy of this state and their jobs is more important than these relentless political attacks.
— Annastacia Palaszczuk, Queensland Premier

Opposition home affairs spokeswoman Kristina Keneally said the onus was on the Morrison government to get more Australians home because international borders and quarantine were the Commonwealth's constitutional responsibility.

She said only four of Australia's 13 international airports were accepting passengers.

"Why aren't we using places like Darwin, where there is a nearby quarantine facility? Canberra, which has got an international airport that is shut down one day a week now because it is so lacking in passengers," she said.

"The Gold Coast, which has the capacity both in terms of the airport and nearby hotels to do quarantine. There is capacity within our system, both international airports and hotel and quarantine facilities to take more."

On Monday, Ms Palaszczuk, who has come under sustained criticism in recent days over the hardline enforcement of her domestic border closure, said improvements would be made to how health officials processed applications for exemptions.

The impact of border closures was highlighted after a Canberra woman was denied permission to leave hotel quarantine to attend her father's funeral, even though there had been no cases of COVID-19 in the ACT for two months.

Despite Prime Minister Scott Morrison calling Ms Palaszczuk to seek her intervention, the Premier insisted decisions on exemptions were up to health officials.

"We are going to be better at dealing with the individual circumstances of people's individual stories. That's why we have an exemptions unit and we are beefing it up," she said.

Ms Palaszczuk said that if her refusal to budge on the borders ended up costing her the October 30 state election, so be it.

"I'm putting myself on the line," she said.

"I am going to hold my head up high. I am going to back in the Queenslanders, all the families out there because to me their health and the economy of this state and their jobs is more important than these relentless political attacks."

South Australia could announce as early as Tuesday when it will reopen its borders to NSW and ACT residents following a meeting of health officials.

Premier Steven Marshall said NSW case numbers – four new cases were recorded on Monday, only one of which was locally acquired – were "looking good".

“If they make a decision tomorrow authorising travel with the ACT or NSW, that will be made immediately," he said.