“The National Cabinet’s three-step roadmap announced by the Prime Minister today allows us all to start seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. It sets benchmarks for the states and territories in the safe unwinding of current restrictions on the community, the workforce and employers and it provides businesses with a degree of guidance to the reopening of the economy and the rejuvenation of job opportunities,” Innes Willox, the Chief Executive of the national employer association Ai Group, said today.
“Considerable uncertainty remains both in relation to the course of infections from the virus and in the triggers that will set the states and territories to take the initial and subsequent actions. As a first step, we urge states with border restrictions to open those borders immediately, to reunite border communities and further free-up cross-border movement and trade. An equally important economic priority is to fully reopen our schools. Keeping schools closed makes the return to work incredibly difficult for parents and also impacts on business productivity.
“Priority now needs to turn from the map to the journey and it is critical that the states and territories continue to take account of not just the economic costs of the continuing restrictions but also the human costs associated with isolation and lack of opportunities to make productive contributions to the recovery and rebuilding task,” Mr Willox said.
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