Innes Willox, Chief Executive of the national employer association Ai Group

Opinion piece published in The Australian, 31 August 2021

Finally, there is light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel.

We are starting to see a new narrative gaining traction that regards lockdowns as soon becoming a thing of the past and living with COVID as our realistic only option.

The final stage to a freer society and economy will require national cabinet agreement to put meat on the bones of the National Plan to Transition Australia's National COVID-19 Response. In particular, the detail of what is required to implement the plan must be simple and straightforward and based on nationally consistent usage of the COVID Health Pass and the way rapid testing can be used to help secure freedoms.

The appeal from employers is for these last steps in our path out of COVID to be free of the often illogical, inconsistent and poorly framed patchwork of rules that have characterised too much of our approach to the pandemic so far.

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