"Next week's National Cabinet meeting presents the ideal opportunity to build on the momentum towards national consistency that has seen several states and territories move closer together on their approaches to easing COVID-19 restrictions," Innes Willox, Chief Executive of the national employer association Ai Group said today.
"We may be one but we are still many in terms of our state and territory approaches to COVID. Bringing the country into line with COVID rules should be the top priority of the next national cabinet meeting.
"As a nation we want to attract visitors from abroad and we want to revive interstate travel. Yet the myriad of different rules and requirements remains a major barrier to achieving these objectives.
"And for our businesses operating across state lines, the hodgepodge of COVID rules that remain across the country create an unwelcome administrative burden and a distraction from their main priorities of growing their operations as they contribute to our post-COVID recovery.
"Our three biggest states of NSW, Victoria and Queensland together with the ACT are edging closer together with their COVID rules but remaining annoyingly divergent on a number of fronts.
"It should not be beyond the wit of our nation's leaders to work together at next week's meeting of National Cabinet to get on the same page," Mr Willox said.
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